THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIFT  OF 

Lt.  Col.  George  White 


THE 


INDIAN  SAINT; 


OR, 


UDDHA  AND  BUDDHISM 


A  SKETCH, 


HISTORICAL   AND    CRITICAL. 


BY 


CHARLES  D.   B.   MILLS. 


NORTHAMPTON,  MASS. 
JOURNAL  AND  FREE  PRESS  CO. 

1876. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1875,  by 

CHARLES  D.  B.  MILLS, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  pages  have  been  written  in  a  feeling  of 
cordial  interest,  indeed  of  love  and  admiration  for  the 
historical  character  they  seek  in  some  degree  to  present, 
and  an  earnest  desire  to  render  both  to  him  and  the 
faith  that  has  flowed  from  his  thought  and  life  —  while 
abstaining  utterly,  if  possible,  from  any  bias  or  partiality 
—equal  and  exact  justice.  How  far,  if  at  all,  this  desire 
may  have  become  realization,  it  must  be  for  the  intel- 
ligent reader  to  decide. 

It  is  difficult,  very  difficult,  to  penetrate  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  a  faith  so  remote,  and  in  many  respects  foreign 
to  our  own,  to  interpret  it,  take  its  measure  justly,  weigh 
it  well.  Still  more  difficult,  perhaps,  to  one  who  should 
have  outgrown,  in  some  degree  at  least,  as  is  hoped, 
the  Christian  limitation,  to  preserve  still  the  perfect  poise, 
to  escape  prepossession  on  the  other  side,  and  draw  the 
picture  without  a  shade  of  flattery. 

The  writing  of  these  pages  was  done  for  the  most 
part  nearly  four  years  since.  Various  circumstances,  not 
necessary  here  to  name,  have  conspired  to  prevent  an 
earlier  publication.  Within  this  intervening  time,  import- 
ant contributions  upon  the  Eastern  religions  have  been 
made,  both  in  this  country  and  Europe,  and  the  horizon 


978 


iv  .     PREFACE. 

of  view  has  constantly  been  widening.  In  particular,  the 
work  of  Mr.  Samuel  Johnson,  {Oriental  Religions,  Boston, 
1872),  deserves  very  cordial  and  honorable  mention.  Im- 
pressed with  so  broad  and  catholic  a  spirit,  so  kindly,  so 
generous  even,  in  its  hospitality  to  Eastern  thought,  so 
careful  in  research  and  affluent  in  learning,  so  superior 
in  insight  and  discrimination,  so  richly  and  deeply  sug- 
gestive, it  certainly  marks,  if  it  does  not  make,  an  epoch 
in  these  studies.  It  would  seem  to  leave  little  to  be 
desired  further  upon  the  themes  it  treats. 

But  the  field  is  large,  and  there  is  room  yet  for 
many  reapers  and  gleaners.  Long  time  it  must  be  ere 
the  sheaves  shall  all  have  been  gathered ;  long  time 
indeed  ere  the  last  word  shall  have  been  spoken,  and 
the  final  judgment  made  'up,  upon  this  or  any  other  of 
the  great  historic  faiths. 

The  present  moment  is  opportune.  The  night  is 
far  spent,  and  the  day  is  at  hand.  We  are  outgrowing 
the  Jewish  narrowness  that  has  from  the  beginning  been 
upon  all  Christendom  —  the  worship  of  exclusive  claims, 
of  dispensation  and  of  person.  We  are  to  study  all 
religions  in  the  light  of  the  universal,  to  measure  all, 
our  own  included,  against  the  standard  of  the  absolute. 
Of  the  enlargements  that  shall  thereby  come,  the 
farthest  seeing  at  present,  can  form  no  fitting  concep- 
tion. The  old  hymn  will  take  on  new  breadth  of 
meaning,  and  the  lines  be  sung  — 

"  Let  party  names  no   more 
The   human  world  o'erspread  ;" 


PREFACE.  v 

the  new  Jerusalem  shall  descend  from  God  out  of 
Heaven,  and  the  church  of  Humanity  be  inaugurated. 
All  the  fragments  shall  be  gathered  up,  there  shall  be 
genuine  recognition  of  the  divine  in  history,  respect 
and  appreciation  everywhere,  but  idolatry  nowhere. 
The  soul,  leaving  every  weight  behind,  shall  urge  ever 
on  and  on  toward  the  infinite  goal. 

In  the  hope  that  it  may  in  some  slight  degree  aid 
to  open  the  way  for  that  bright  consummation,  this 
little  volume  is  sent  forth.  It  is  doubtless  very  partial 
and  incomplete,  marked  and  perhaps  marred  with  many 
deficiencies.  If  it  shall  serve  in  any  measure  to  illus- 
trate the  subject  it  seeks  to  present,  if  it  shall  avail 
at  all  to  incite  and  quicken,  to  enlarge  the  horizon 
and  exalt  the  tone  of  life,  its  ambitions  will  have 
,been  fulfilled. 

SYRACUSE,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  15111,  1875. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  LIFE. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  EFFECT. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  THOUGHT. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  DOCTRINE. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  FINE   PROBLEM. 


SAKYAMUNI. 


I. 

THE  LIFE. 

IN  the  Eastern  world  to-day  there  bow  untold  millions 
of  devout  worshipers  before  Buddha ;  *  his  statues 
are  in  the  temples,  his  adoration  is  celebrated  with 
incense  of  sandal-wood  and  odors  of  flowers,  his 
birth-place  and  theatre  of  action  is  the  holy  land  of 
the  church  of  believers,  and  immense  topes  in  India 
have  been  erected  over  his  real  or  supposed  relics. 
The  vast  vihdras  or  monasteries,  built  in  the  olden 
time,  have  been  thronged  with  monks  eager  to  learn 
the  law,  and  the  successors  of  them  still  stand  in 
Ceylon,  Birmah,  Thibet,  Mongolia,  China  and  Japan. 
No  other  name  is  held  in  such  reverence ;  Buddha. 
is  the  incarnation,  the  great  messenger  from  the 
heavens  to  men,  his  word  is  the  supreme  gospel,  the 


*  Koeppen,  Religion  des  Buddha,  L,  p.  12 1,  estimates  the  number 
at  about  one-third  the  entire  population  of  the  globe.  The  same,  or 
about  the  same,  —  Fausboll,  Bigandet,  Berghaus  and  Prof.  Neumann. 


10  BUDDHA. 

way  of  salvation  for  all.  No  other  faith  has  had 
such  a  following,  none  ever  spread  so  quickly  so 
far,  or  kept  for  itself  stronger  hold  upon  the  popular 
mind. 

For  about  twenty-four  centuries  now  this  relig- 
ion has  been  current ;  albeit  expelled  from  the  land 
of  its  birth  it  has  wide  prevalence  in  Central  and 
Eastern  Asia,  and  gives  thus  far  no  sign,  to  outward 
seeming,  of  any  dissolution  or  decay.  By  the  Pacific 
wave  it  is  borne  to  our  own  coast,  and  we  are 
brought  thus  face  to  face  with  it  —  perhaps  under  one 
of  its  coarser  and  more  degenerate  types,  —  as  one  of 
the  practical  problems  of  our  time. 

It  is  a  phenomenon  certainly  well  worth  our 
study.  We  have  before  us,  beyond  question,  the 
effect  of  a  powerful  personality  in  history ;  a  wave 
upon  the  ocean  of  mind,  far  extending,  and  yet 
unspent.  Mr.  Beal,  who  personally  has  studied  it 
upon  Chinese  soil,  describes  it,  viewing  it,  too,  from 
the  stand-point  of  orthodox  Christianity  ^  as  "one 
of  the  most  wonderful  '  movements  of  the  human 
mind  in  the  direction  of  Spiritual  Truth."  We 
ought  to  be  in  condition  to  look  at  this  fact  fairly, 
to  read  it  truly,  with  a  fine  appreciation,  as  well  as 
just  critical  rigor. 

Who  was  this  Buddha,  what  is  the  measure  of  his 
claim,  what  his  place  comparatively  among  the  great 


THE  LIFE.  H 

saints  and  benefactors  of  the  world  ?  What  was 
the  magnetic  charm  of  that  presence  and  word  that 
seems  to  have  ravished  so  many  souls,  and  to  have 
left  such  deep  and  lasting  impress  upon  the  Eastern 
peoples?  What  was  the  quality  of  his  thought  and 
style  of  his  life,  and  how  shall  he  stand,  permanently, 
in  history?  These  questions  are  to  have  some  day 
full  answer. 

Myth  and  legend  cover  also  this  history,  cover  it, 
indeed,  as  almost  no  other  that  we  know.  The 
Eastern  mind  speaks  characteristically  in  hyperbole 
and  figure,  and  in  this  case  —  so  has  the  imagination 
been  wrought  upon  and  intoxicated  —  it  has  overlaid 
the  •  reality  with  the  sports  and  extravagances  of 
fancy,  almost  too  deep  for  possible  recover)'.  It  is 
often  exceedingly  difficult,  and  sometimes  utterly 
impracticable  to  separate  the  fact  from  the  myth,  or, 
rather,  to  know  how  much  and  what  is  the  fact, 
behind  the  myth.  There  are  things  which  nice, 
careful  critics  would  promptly  dismiss  as  purely 
mythic,  and  which,  nevertheless,  it  is  not  hard  to 
see,  have  true  historic  ground  and  a  fine  significance. 

Gautama  Buddha,  called  afterward  also  Sakya- 
Muni  —  the  monk  or  hermit  of  the  Sakyas  —  was  born 
in  the  northern  part  of  India,  a  little  north  of  what 
is  now  the  province  of  Oude,  probably  in  the  earlier 


12  BUDDHA. 

half  of  the  sixth  century  before  Christ.  There  is 
very  wide  difference  in  the  dates  given  from  different 
sources  here.  The  Thibetans  themselves  have  as 
many  as  fourteen,  ranging  in  the  extreme  limits 
nearly  2,000  years  apart.  But  the  Chinese  and  Thi- 
betans generally  fix  the  death  at  not  far  from  1,000 
B.  C. ;  the  Chronicle  of  Cashmere  considerably  earlier ; 
the  Singhalese,  with  much  unanimity,  at  543  B.  C. 
But  Max  Miiller*  affirms  there  are  good  grounds  for 
setting  it  at  477  B.  C,  and  as  Buddha  is  commonly 
reputed  to  have  lived  seventy-nine  years,  this  would  fix 
his  birth  at  about  556  B.  C.  There  is,  however,  noto- 
riously great  dimness  and  uncertainty  —  which  is  essen- 
tially increased  in  this  instance  by  special  causes  —  over- 
hanging Indian  chronology  in  the  early  times,  and 
probably  we  are  able  to  attain  here,  at  best,  but  an 
approximation,  f  The  name  of  the  town  was  Kapila- 
vastu,  J  capital  of  a  small  kingdom  of  the  same  name, 
and  his  father,  Suddhodana  —  ' '  living  upon  clean 
food "  —  was  the  king,  described  as  a  man  of  distin- 
guished bravery  and  integrity.  He  belonged  by  this 
descent  to  the  Sakyas,  and  these  came  of  the  great 

*  Chips,  I.,  p.  206.     See  also  Bigandet,  p.  319,  note. 

f  See  Koeppen,  L,  pp.  118,  119. 

|  Kapilavastu  was  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  province  of  Kosala, 
and  a  little  north  of  the  Gorackpur  of  the  present  day.  It  was  on  a 
stream,  Rohini,  which  near  Gorackpur  empties  into  the  Rapti. 


THE  LIFE.  13 

Solar  race,  a  race  very  famous  in  the  early  annals 
of  India.*  His  mother,  Mayadevi,  was  distinguished 
above  all  women  of  her  time,  for  her  physical  beauty, 
a  beauty  so  ravishing  to  the  eye  that  she  bore  famil- 
iarly the  name  Maya,  "illusion  ;  "  distinguished,  withal, 
still  more  for  her  high  qualities  of  soul.  She  died 
seven  days  after  the  birth  of  her  son,  and  he-  was 
confided  for  rearing  to  the  care  of  a  maternal  aunt.f 
There  was  also  a  miraculous  conception  in  this 
relation.  According  to  some  of  the  accounts  his 
mother  was  a  virgin,  and  he  was  begotten  without 
human  intervention ;  as  a  beam  of  light  he  entered 
the  womb  of  Mayadevi.  His  conception,  his  growth 


*  Beal,  however,  advances,  the  opinion  that  he  was  of  Scythian 
descent.  A  branch  or  clan  of  this  race,  he  thinks,  may  have  pene- 
trated Northern  India,  as  another  did  Assyria  about  this  time,  and 
Buddha  was  born  of  this  blood,  a  descendant  of  the  Chakravarttins  or 
Wheel  Kings,  i.  e,,  universal  monarchs.  Sakya's  directions  as  to  the 
funeral  obsequies  to  be  observed  after  his  death,  the  cremation  of  the 
body,  and  the  subsequent  erection  of  mounds,  or  topes,  in  such  num- 
bers over  India, —  all,  he  deems,  indicate  a  foreign  parentage  for  this 
saint.  See  his  Catena,  pp.  128,  129.  But  this  of  the  directions  is  very 
probably  a  subsequent  invention  ;  it  certainly  comports  little  with  his 
known  character,  and  especially  with  the  light  esteem,  almost  the 
contempt,  in  which  he  is  represented  to  have  held  the  body.  The 
weight  of  the  evidence  seems  altogether  in  favor  of  the  view  that  he 
was  of  the  Aryan  race  and  family  of  the  Sakyas. 

t  The  incarnation  and  the  birth  are  both  represented  in  the  sculp- 
tures found  upon  the  remains  of  the  ancient  temple  at  Sanchi.  See 
Fergusson's  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  plates  xxxiii.  and  Ixv. 


14 


BUDDHA. 


and   birth   were   without   taint   of   human   impurity   or 
infirmity. 

It  is  worthy  of  note,  in  passing,  that  this  seems 
to  have  been  a  fruitful  epoch,  productive  of  supe- 
rior, genuinely  great  men.  Confucius  in  China, 
and  Pythagoras  in  Greece  (Magna  Graecia),  both 
teachers  of  broad  and  universal  quality,  were  cotem- 
porary  with  Buddha.  Xenophanes  and,  following 
him,  the  Eleatic  school  came  about  the  same  time ; 
also  Heraclitus.  A  little  earlier  was  Lao  Tsze,  a 
sage  more  exalted  perhaps  than  Confucius,  and  cotem- 
porary  with  him  was  Thales. 

In  true  Oriental  style  we  are  told  what  attention 
this  advent  excited  in  the  world  of  the  gods,  and 
what  marvels  it  wrought  in  the  house  and  kingdom 
of  Suddhodana.  The  palace  swept  itself  clean,  all  the 
birds  of  Himavat  assembled,  testifying  their  joy  in 
song;  the  gardens  bloomed  with  flowers  and  the 
ponds  filled  with  the  lotus ;  scented  waters  flowed  ; 
meats  of  all  kinds  covered  the  tables,  and  although 
partaken  freely  of,  knew  no  diminution  ;  instruments 
of  music,  without  touch  of  hand,  played,  giving  forth 
the  finest  melodies;  caskets  of  jewels  sprang  open, 
displaying  of  their  own  accord  their  treasures,  and 
finally  the  palace  was  irradiated  with  an  unearthly 
splendor,  that  eclipsed  that  of  the  sun  and  moon. 
Gods  and  goddesses  came  to  pay  their  adoration  before 


THE  LIFE.  I5 

him  while  he  was  in  the  womb  of  Mayadevi,  and  Indra 
and  Brahma,  chiefs  of  the  gods,  descended  to  receive 
the  new-born  child  in  the  garden  of  Lumbini,  and 
performed  for  him  those  offices  usually  done  to  the 
new-born.  The  old  Brahman  Asita,  dwelling  in  Him- 
avat,  came  down  to  greet  the  child,  read  upon  his 
person  the  thirty-two  primary  and  the  eighty  secondary 
marks  of  the  great  man,  and  predicted  to  the  father 
that  this  was  to  be  the  Buddha.  For  himself,  he 
grieved  that  the  old  age  that  was  already  upon  him, 
would  not  permit  him  to  hear  that  fine  instruction 
in  the  law  that  was  to  come. 

In  due  time  the  child  was  presented  in  the  temple 
of  the  gods.  All  the  images  started  from  their  seats 
and  prostrated  themselves  before  him,  and  sang  chants 
in  his  praise.  He  grew  up  a  boy  of  surpassing  beauty 
and  of  the  most  extraordinary  parts.  Placed  in  the 
schools  of  writing,  he  soon  was  superior  to  his 
masters,  and  one  of  them,  Visvamitra,  frankly  owned 
he  had  no  more  he  could  teach  him.  He  was 
pensive,  reticent,  took  little  part  in  the  sports  of  his 
mates,  and  used  frequently  to  retire  by  himself  into 
•solitudes,  where  he  seemed  lost  in  meditation.  One 
day,  going  out  with  his  companions  for  an  excursion 
to  a  neighboring  village,  he  quietly  withdrew  alone 
into  the  shadows  of  a  deep  forest,  where  he  remained 
a  long  while.  His  continued  absence  occasioned 


!6  BUDDHA. 

great  anxiety  to  his  friends,  and  a  careful  search 
was  .instituted,  in  which  the  king,  his  father,  took 
part.  They  found  him  sitting  under  the  shade  of  a 
bamboo  tree,  rapt  and  lost  in  his  thoughts. 

The  tendency  in  him  to  withdrawal  and  solitary 
reverie  gave  pain  to  the  courtiers  and  all  his  kin- 
dred ;  it  was  feared  the  royal  family  would  some 
day  be  without  issue,  and  the  throne  without  an 
occupant.  So  it  was  determined  that  the  young  man 
should  marry,  and  it  was  hoped  that  in  the  attrac- 
tions of  family  he  might  be  beguiled  from  his  apparent 
purpose.  He  demanded  seven  days  for  reflection, 
and  at  last  feeling  sure  of  himself,  sure  that  mar- 
riage could  not  take  from  him  the  calmness  of 
thought,  nor  leisure  for  meditation,  he  consented. 
He  imposed  certain  imperative  conditions.  The 
woman  for  him  must  not  be  a  frivolous  creature, 
without  sobriety  or  possession.  It  little  signified  tor 
the  rest  what  should  be  her  caste.  She  might 
belong  to  the  Vaisyas  or  the  Sudras,  equally  well 
as  to  the  Brahmans  or  Kshatriyas,  only  she  must 
be  endowed  with  womanly  qualities,  such  as  were 
to  be  desired  in  a  companion.  Such  an  one  at 
length  was  found  ;  it  was  in  the  person  of  the  beau- 
tiful Gopa,  of  the  family  of  Sakyas,  daughter  of 
Dandapani. 

But  to  this  union    the  father  objected.       He   could 


THE  LIFE.  ij 

not  surrender  his  daughter  to  a  young  man,  prince 
though  he  were,  who  had  the  repute  of  being  rather 
a  dreamer,  and  deficient  in  manly  qualities.  A  con- 
test was  instituted  ;  among  five  hundred  of  the  young 
Sakyas  assembled.  Gopa  was  promised  to  the  one 
who  should  excel  all  the  others  in  certain  athletic 
performance.  Gautama  easily  lead  them  all  in  every- 
thing ;  he  was  the  best  swimmer,  runner,  leaper, 
archer,  albeit  he  had  never  before  practised  'any  of 
these  arts.  The  archery  was  certainly  good,  for  we 
are  told  that  he  split  with  his  arrow  a  hair  at  the 
distance  of  ten  miles,  though  at  the  time  it  was 
dark  as  night.*  Hardly  could  any  one  of  the  young 
Sakyas  hope  to  do  better. 

He  did  more.  He  went  into  feats  of  mind, 
showed  himself  more  proficient  than  the  judges  even, 
in  writing,  arithmetic,  logic,  knowledge  of  the  Vedas, 
philosophy,  etc.  Dandapani  cordially  now  yielded  his 
consent,  and  the  marriage  took  place.  The  union 
was  of  the  happiest,  a  true  fellowship,  a  church  of 
saints.  Gautama's  age,  it  is  said,  was  sixteen  years 
when  he  was  married  to  Gopa. 

But  there  was  in  this  young  man  a  want  that 
no  companionship  of  wife  or  dearest  friend  could 
supply,  thoughts  that  knew  only  solitude,  that  visited 


*  Hardy's  Legends  and  Theories  of  the  Buddhists,  p.  139. 


jg  BUDDHA. 

and  gave  him  communion  but  in  retirement  from 
all  outward  and  seen.  There  were  unanswered  ques- 
tions that  haunted,  present  everywhere  by  night  and 
by  day,  subtle,  vital,  that  he  must  take  life-long 
perhaps  to  ponder.  The  prince  was  still  pensive, 
abode  much  by  himself;  the  gayety  of  society  and 
the  splendors  of  the  court  pleased,  but  they  did  not 
fill  or  captivate  him.  Evidently  he  had  not  been 
diverted  from  the  early  bias  he  had  shown,  and 
which  had  given  such  uneasiness  to  his  friends. 

"What  is  our  life,"  he  was  wont  to  revolve  with 
himself,  "whence  is  it  and  whither?  It  is  like  an 
echo,  a  dream,  the  note  of  a  lute,  the  lightning  that 
flashes  for  an  instant,  and  is  gone ;  none  can  tell 
whence  it  came  or  whither  it  goes.  All  is  instabil- 
ity, change,  a  ceaseless  motion, — is  naught.  But  there 
must  be  substance  somewhere,  some  reality  wherein 
is  duration  and  rest.  If  I  could  know  and  attain 
that,  I  could  bring  light  to  man  ;  free  myself,  I  could 
deliver  the  world.  I  could  show  them  the  sure 
gate  of  immortality.  Withdrawn  from  the  thoughts 
born  of  the  senses  and  beset  with  pain  and  unrest, 
1  would  establish  them  in  repose.  In  making  those 
who  are  enveloped  in  deepest  ignorance  see  the 
clear  light  of  the  law,  I  should  give  them  that  fine 
vision  that  reads  all  things,  that  ray  of  pure  wisdom 
that  has  no  blemish  or  decay." 


THE  LIFE.  1 9 

Three  incidents,  of  a  kind  the  most  ordinary  and 
unnoticed  in  the  experience  of  men  generally,  hap- 
pening in  his  experience  were  most  fruitful  in  results. 
One  day,  starting  from  the  eastern  gate  of  the  city 
with  a  numerous  retinue  for  a  ride  to  the  garden 
of  Lumbini,  a  place  endeared  to  him  by  many  most 
sacred  associations,  he  met  upon  the  way  an  aged 
man.  He  was  broken,  decrepit,  covered  with  wrin- 
kles, his  head  was  white,  the  veins  and  muscles 
stood  prominent  over  his  body,  his  teeth  chattered  ; 
leaning  upon  his  staff  he  tottered,  scarcely  able  to 
walk.  ' '  Who  is  this  man  ? "  he  asked  of  the  coach- 
man. "He  is  small  and  weak,  his  flesh  and  his 
blood  are  dried  up,  his  muscles  stick  to  his  skin, 
his  body  is  wasted  away,  he  trembles  at  every  step. 
Is  this  some  peculiar  condition  of  his  family,  or  is 
it  the  common  lot  of  all  created  beings  ? " 

"Sir,"  replied  the  coachman,  "this  man  is  borne 
down  by  old  age,  all  his  senses  are  enfeebled,  suf- 
fering has  destroyed  his  strength,  he  is  despised  by  rfis 
relations ;  without  support  and  incapable  of  anything^ 
he  is  abandoned,  like  the  dead  tree  in  the  forest. 
But  this  is  no  special  condition  of  his  family.  In 
every  creature  youth  is  overcome  by  old  age.  Your 
father,  your  mother,  all  your  kindred  and  friends, 
shall  come  to  the  same  state,  there  is  no  other  end 
for  living  beings. '' 


20  BUDDHA, 

"Alas  then,"  answered  the  prince,  "are  creatures 
so  weak,  so  ignorant  and  foolish  as  to  be  proud 
of  the  youth  that  intoxicates  them,  not  seeing  the 
old  age  that  awaits?  For  myself,  I  will  away.  Coach- 
man, turn  my  chariot  quickly.  I,  the  future  prey 
of  old  age,  what  have  I  to  do  with  pleasure  or 
joy?"  And,  turning  back,  he  reentered  the  city. 

Another  day,  going  out  as  before,  he  met  a  sick 
man,  a  poor  wretch  suffering  with  fever,  consumed 
by  the  quenchless  fire,  homeless  and  friendless,  dy- 
ing in  destitution  and  filth.  And  again  he  met  a 
corpse  upon  a  bier,  borne  by  weeping  friends,  for  the 
tomb.  He  interrogated  his  coachman,  and  learned 
that  these  too  were  under  the  lot  of  humanity,  and 
was  affected  to  deepest  sadness.  He  returned  to  his 
home,  and  would  go  no  more  in  pursuit  of  pleasure. 
Once  again  he  met  a  bhikshu,  a  mendicant.  He  inter- 
rogated his  coachman,  and  was  answered,  "This  man 
has  renounced  all  pleasures,  all  desires,  and  leads  a 
life  of  severe  austerity.  He  tries  to  conquer  himself. 
He  has  become  a  devotee.  Without  passion  and 
without  envy  he  goes  about,  seeking  alms." 

"Well  said,"  replied  the  prince;  "the  life  of  a 
devotee  has  always  been  praised  by  the  wise.  It 
shall  be  my  refuge  and  the  refuge  of  other  crea- 
tures ;  it  will  lead  us  to  a  real  life,  to  happiness 
and  immortality." 


THE  LIFE.  21 

His  resolution  was  taken.  Gopa,  his  wife,  was 
the  first  to  whom  he  imparted  the  choice  secret. 
One  night  she  awoke  in  terror  from  a  bad  dream, 
and  asked  Gautama  for  an  explanation.  He  opened 
to  her  freely  his  purpose,  sympathized  with  her  grief, 
and^  was  able  for  the  time  to  console  her  in  good 
degree  for  her  loss.  Then,  filled  with  filial  respect 
and  spirit  of  submission,  he  sought  the  same  night 
the  bed-side  of  his  father,  told  him  frankly  all  and 
begged  to  be  permitted  to  depart  in  peace.  The 
father,  with  eyes  filled  with  tears,  besought  him  to 
change  his  determination.  Naught  that  utmost  wish 
could  desire  should  be  withheld  from  him,  the  pal- 
ace, kingdom,  servants,  the  king  himself — all  should 
be  laid  at  his  feet.  But  nothing  of  this  could 
avail  with  the  prince.  "Give  me,"  said  he,  "that 
I  may  know  the  method  of  exemption  from  old 
age,  disease,  death,  or  give  me  at  least  that  I  shall 
know  no  transmigration  in  the  world  beyond,  and  I 
will  cheerfully  remain  with  thee  ever."  The  king 
confessed  that  this  was  utterly  beyond  his  power ;  all 
were  subject  to  that  condition  ;  even  the  Rishis,  in 
the  midst  of  the  Kalpa  in  which  they  live,*  are  not 
exempt  from  the  dread  of  age. 

*  The  duration  of  a  Kalpa  is  indicated  in  this  way  :  «'  Take  a  rock 
forming  a  cube  of  about  fourteen  miles,  touch  it  once  in  a  hundred 
years  with  a  piece  of  fine  cloth,  and  the  rock  will  sooner  be  reduced 


22  BUDDHA. 

The  king  saw  that  it  was  of  no  avail  whatever 
to  attempt  to  dissuade  this  youth  from  his  purpose, 
but  he  resolved,  if  possible,  to  keep  him  at  home, 
to  prevent  his  escape.  The  gates  of  the  city  were 
watched,  guards  were  set  all  about  the  town,  and 
Suddhodana  himself,  with  five  hundred  young  Sakyas, 
watched  at  the  gate  of  the  palace.  But  it  was  all 
in  vain.  One  night  when  the  guards,  weary,  were 
fast  asleep,  the  prince  ordered  his  coachman  Tchan- 
daka  to  saddle  his  horse,  for  his  hour  was  come. 
The  faithful  coachman,  in  tears,  made  one  last 
appeal,  begging  him  not  to  sacrifice  himself  thus," 
his  youth  and  beauty  and  fine  position  for  the 
poor  life  of  a  devotee.  It  was  an  empty  word  for 
those  ears.  ' '  Shunned  by  the  wise,  like  the  fangs 
of  a  serpent,  cast  out  like  an  unclean  vessel,  the 
desires,  Tchandaka,  as  I  but  too  well  know,  are 
the  ruin  of  all  virtue.  Let  a  torrent  of  thunder- 
bolts, of  arrows,  flaming  swords,  like  the  vivid  light- 
nings, or  the  burning  summit  of  the  volcano,  sooner 
fall  upon  and  overwhelm  me,  than  that  I  be  born 
again  with  the  desire  of  house."* 

to  dust  than  a  kalpa  will  have  attained  its  end."— M.  Mtiller,  Lectttre 
on  Buddhist  Nihilism,  p.  8. 

*  Another  account  has  it  that  at  this  point  Mara,  the  tempter, 
appeared  and  promised  him  the  kingdom  of  the  world,  if  he  would 
renounce  his  design  and  remain.  "  But  the  offer  was  as  repugnant 


THE  LIFE.  23 

Unobserved  by  any,  he  left  the  city  at  the  hour 
of  midnight,*  and  the  star  Pushya,  that  had  presided 
at  his  birth,  rose  at  this  moment  above  the  horizon. 
He  turned  to  cast  a  last  look  upon  the  palace  and 
the  town,  and  touched  with  a  deep  tenderness  he 
said,  sweetly,  "  Never  shall  I  return  again  to  this 
city  of  Kapila,  until  I  shall  have  attained  the  ces- 
sation of  birth  and  death,  exemption  from  old  age 
and  decay,  and  reached  the  pure  intelligence."  He 
was  not  to  visit  this  home  again  until  twelve  years 
afterward,  when  he  came  there  to  preach  the  new 
faith.  Together  they  travelled  all  the  night,  and  at 
day-break  were  twelve  leagues  away.  Gautama 
alighted,  dismissed  his  coachman  homeward  with  his 
horse,  and  the  costly  ornaments  that  he  took  from 

to  those  ears  as  would  have  been  the  attempt  to  pierce  them  with 
glowing  iron." — Koeppen,  I.,  p.  82. 

*  Some  of  the  legends  have  it  that  the  departure  took  place  on 
the  night  after  the  birth  of  his  child.  Standing  upon  the  threshold  ot 
the  door,  he  saw  the  princess  sleeping,  with  her  hand  placed  over  the 
head  of  the  infant.  He  wished  to  remove  the  hand,  that  he  might 
look  into  the  little  face,  but  fearing  that  he  might  thereby  awaken 
the  mother,  and  his  resolution  in  consequence  be  weakened,  it  not 
destroyed,  he  refrained.  Gazing  for  a  moment  from  the  threshold, 
with  what  thoughts  we  can  well  imagine,  he  turned  away  and  left 
family  and  court  forever.  "After  having  become  Buddha,"  he  said, 
"I  will  see  the  child."  This  boy  was  named  Rahula,  and  we  hear 
of  him  afterward  as  one  among  the  followers  of  the  saint. 

See  Spence  Hardy,  Eastern  Monachism,  p.  3  ;  also  Bishop 
Bigandet's  Legend  of  Gaudama,  pp.  53-57. 


24  BUDDHA. 

his  person,  henceforth  without  use  for  him.  The 
horse  Kantaka,  born  upon  the  same  moment  with 
Sakya,  we  read,  was  so  strongly  attached  to  his 
master  that  he  shed  tears  upon  the  separation,*  and 
some  accounts  have  it  that  his  heart  burst  and  he 
died  on  the  spot.f  A  monument  was  afterward 
erected  at  the  place  where  the  coachman  turned 
.back,  and  Hiouen  Thsang,  the  Chinese  pilgrim,  in 
the  seventh  century  of  our  era,  reports  that  he  found 
it  yet  standing.  Gautama  is  said  to  have  been  about 
twenty-nine  years  old  at  the  time  of  this  Hegira.J 
Soon  as  the  escape  was  discovered,  the  palace  was 
all  in  commotion.  Swift  messengers  were  sent  in 
ever}7  direction,  with  strict  orders  at  every  hazard  to 
bring  back  the  prince.  But  they  did  not  find  him. 
Some  of  them  met  Tchandaka,  who  told  them  of 
the  circumstances  of  the  flight,  and  earnestly  pro- 
tested that  his  master  would  never  be  brought  back 
alive.  It  remained  but  to  return  and  report  all  at 
the  court.  Gopa  was  filled  with  deepest  sorrow,  for, 
somewhat  prepared  as  she  had  been  for  this  departure, 


*  This  also  is  represented  in  the  sculptures  referred  to.  See  Fer- 
gusson,  Tree  and  Ser petit  Worship^  pi.  lix. 

t  Bigandet,  p.  61. 

%  Some  accounts  make  it  the  twentieth  or  twenty-first  year,  but 
the  nearly  unanimous  testimony  is  for  the  age  given  above. 


THE  LIFE.  25 

it   came  as  a  shock    to  her  that  no  most  kindly   con- 
solements  could   relieve. 

Gautama,  left  alone,  set  to  work  now  to  prepare 
himself  for  his  undertaking.  With  his  sword  he  cut 
off  the  Icng  locks  he  had  worn  as  symbol  of  his 
caste,  and  threw  them  to  the  wind.  His  garments, 
rich,  of  the  finest  silk  of  Benares,  he  exchanged 
with  a  hunter  whom  he  met,  for  his  single  garment 
made  of  a  stag's  skin  of  yellow  color.  The  hunter 
accepted  the  trade  with  a  measure  of  embarrasment, 
for  he  perceived  readily  that  he  was  dealing  with 
some  very  superior  person.  The  prince  sought  and 
was  kindl/  received  by  the  Brahmans,  with  whom 
and  their  adherents  the  forests  seem  to  have  been 
filled.  Near  the  city  of  Vaisali  *  he  found  Arata 
Kalama,  a  Brahman  of  great  repute,  who  had  about, 
him  three  hundred  disciples.  The  arrival  of  this, 
young  man,  with  his  extraordinary  antecedents,  caused 
great  attention.  He  was  of  surpassing  beauty  of 
person,  and  when  he  spoke,  his  wordsWere  wisdom. 
Kalama  was  struck  by  his  superiority,  and  though 
he  had  applied  for  admission  as  a  pupil,  the  mas- 
ter besought  him  to  remain  as  colleague,  sharing 


*  Vaisali,  a  few  leagues  north  of  Patna  ot  the  present  day. 
According  to  Major  Cunningham  the  ruins  are  still  to  be  seen. — The 
Bhilsa  Topes,  p.  29. 


26  BUDDHA. 

with  him  the  work  of  instruction.  But  the  thought- 
ful youth  did  not  find  here  what  satisfied  his  need. 
Frankly  he  said,  "This  doctrine  conducts  not  to  the 
true  deliverance.  But,"  he  added,  with  himself,  "by 
completing  it,  since  it  inculcates  the  subjugation  of 
the  senses,  I  may  come  to  the  final  liberation.  But 
it  needs  study,  patient,  continuous  labor  to  perfect  it." 
From  Vaisali  he  went  to  Rajagriha,*  the  capital 
of  Magadha,  the  present  Behar.  The  story  of  his 
extraordinary  appearance  and  character  had  preceded 
him,  and  the  multitude,  struck  with  the  self-abnega- 
tion and  personal  beauty,  filled  all  the  streets  as  he 
passed.  Business  was  suspended,  for,  that  day,  the 
legend  tells  us,  "they  ceased  from  their  buying  and 
their  selling,  and  even  from  the  drinking  of  liquors 
and  of  wine,  to  view  the  noble  mendicant  that  was 
asking  alms."  The  king  Bimbisara,  who  was  of 
about  the  same  age,  and  between  whose  father  and 
Suddhodana  there  had  always  been  an  intimate 
friendship,  observed  him  closely,  visited  him  in  his 
retreat,  and  "charmed  with  his  discourse,  at  once 
so  exalted  and  so  simple,  his  magnanimity  and  his 
integrity,"  became  his  fast  friend  and  protector,  and 
afterward  joined  the  congregation.  But  his  most 


*  Rljagriha,  about  forty  miles  south-east  of   rauia,  and  sixteen 
mihs  south-west  of  Behar  (tbe  town). 


7 HE  LIFE. 


27 


flattering  offers  could  not  tempt  the  young  devotee 
to  remain ;  he  had  other  work  to  do,  and  so  he 
retired  into  deep  solitudes,  far  from  the  observation 
and  noise  of  the  crowd. 

There  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rajagriha  a 
Brahman  still  more  celebrated  than  he  of  Vaisali, 
Rudraka  by  name.  He  had  a  reputation  unequaled 
as  a  teacher,  both  among  the  vulgar  and  the  learned, 
and  held  about  him  a  school  of  seven  hundred  dis- 
ciples. Gautama  sought  him,  asking  admission  as  a 
pupil.  But  Rudraka,  after  a  little  acquaintance, 
offered,  as  had  Arata,  to  give  him  equal  place  with 
himself.  "Together,"  said  he,  'Met  us  teach  our 
doctrine  to  this  multitude."  But  neither  here  could 
he  remain.  "Friend/'  said  Gautama,  "this  road 
leads  not  to  indifference  toward  the  objects  of  this 
world,  leads  not  to  conquest,  serenity,  perfect  wis- 
dom, leads  not  to  Nirvana."  He  withdrew,  and  five 
of  his  fellow  pupils  followed  him. 

In  the  forests  of  Uruvilva*  they  remained,  prac- 
ticing together  for  years  the  severest  Brahmanic  aus- 
terities. Gautama  welcomed  in  this  time,  it  is  said, 
tests  and  trials  that  would  have  appalled  the  gods. 
What  conflicts  he  sustained,  battles  with  the  most 


*  Uruvilv^  was  a  village  on  the  banks  of  the  present  Nilajan,  a 
tributary  of  the  Phalgu  river. 


28  BUDDHA. 

formidable  demons !  They  tried  their  worst  upon 
him,  and  in  every  instance  were  vanquished  ;  broken 
and  discomfited,  were  driven  back  to  their  haunts. 
In  Oriental  fashion  we  are  told  of  these  conflicts, 
personal  ones  with  demons.  In  the  midst  of  his 
severe  penances,  one  day,  Mayadevi,  alarmed  for  the 
life  of  her  son,  left  Tushita,  the  heavenly  abode,  and 
came  down  to  implore  him  to  cease  from  this  ex- 
cessive self-mortification.  He  consoles  his  mother, 
but  yields  not.  Then  Mara,  the  Evil  One,  essays 
to  overcome  him,  and  approaches  with  soft  words  of 
flattery.  "Dear  one,  it  is  necessary  to  live,  in  order 
that  you  should  perform  the  things  you  desire  for 
mankind.  The  work  of  life  ought  to  be  done 
without  pain.  Already  thou  art  attenuated;  thy 
youthful  bloom  is  faded,  thou  art  drawing  near  to 
the  grave.  Gain  not  thy  possession  at  too  great 
cost.  The  victory  over  the  spirit  is  hard,  very  hard 
to  attain." 

The  young  ascetic  answers,  "Papiyan,  thou  ally 
of  whatever  is  delirious  and  insane,  hither  art  thou 
come  to  assail  and  seduce  .  me  ?  Know  that  the 
end  of  life  is  death,  inevitable.  I  shall  not  seek 
to  escape  it.  Armed  with  courage  and  with  wis- 
dom, there  is  no  creature  in  the  world  that  can 
move  me.  Demon,  soon  shall  I  gain  the  conquest 
over  thee.  The  desires  are  thy  first  soldiers,  ennui 


THE  LIFE. 


29 


the  next,  then  the  passions,  love  of  ease,  fear, 
anger,  ambition,  false  fame,  self-praise,  censoriousness, 
—  these  are  thy  black  hosts.  Thy  soldiers  reduce 
the  gods  as  the  world  of  men.  But  I  will  destroy 
them  by  wisdom. " 

Then  he  did  battle  with  these  demons,  fought  in 
the  wilderness  and  overcame,  and  Mara,  humiliated 
and  ashamed,  for  the  time  withdrew.  Ere  long, 
however,  the  sons  of  the  gods  came  to  make  an 
attack  upon  him  still  more  formidable.  He  was 
fasting  severely,  and  his  very  life  was  passing  away. 
They  offered  to  infuse  nourishment  through  the 
pores  of  his  skin,  and  enable  him  to  show  the 
peasants  the  miracle  of  a  man,  sustained  in  good 
vigor,  who  took  no  food.  He  rejected  with  scorn 
and  indignation  the  proffer.  "Yes,  verily,  I  might 
show  the  peasants  such  a  spectacle,  and  they  might 
believe  that  Sramana  eats  not  at  all,  all  the  while 
being  secretly  nourished  in  this  manner  by  the  sons 
of  the  gods,  but  it  were  on  my  part  a  huge  lie. 
Nay,  indeed!"  And  so,  in  his  own  dialect,  this  spn 
of  man  also  in  the  wilderness,  declares,  "Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan.  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  from  the  mouth 
of  God." 

Other  conflicts  remained  ;  before  attaining  Bodhi, 
the  highest  wisdom  and  possession,  he  must  achieve 


3o  BUDDHA. 

still  more  conquests.  He  challenged  the  prince  of 
the  infernal  regions,  with  all  his  black  hosts,  to  com- 
bat. •  Sending  from  a  point  between  his  eyebrows 
(a  little  tuft  of  hair  that  was  one  of  the  thirty-two 
signs  upon  him  at  birth),  a  beam  of  light  that 
pierced  and  made  to  tremble  all  the  depths  of  hell, 
he  roused  Papiyan,  who,  alarmed  for  his  kingdom, 
summoned  all  his  forces  together.  A  council  of 
war  was  held.  Some  were  for  yielding,  at  least, 
making  no  attempt,  foreseeing  certain  defeat.  Others 
were  for  every  adventure  desperation  could  make, 
believing  in  victory.  This  counsel  prevailed.  Four 
corps  d'armee  there  were,  hideous  and  frightful  beyond 
description.  The  demons  changed  their  visage  in  a 
hundred  million  ways,  their  hands  and  their  feet  were 
intertwined  with  ten  thousand  serpents,  they  carried 
swords,  bows,  pikes,  javelins,  hatchets,  clubs,  pestles, 
and  all  the  weapons  known  to  that  time,  thunder- 
bolts included ;  their  heads  were  lurid  with  flame  ; 
belly,  feet,  hands  of  most  disgusting  aspect;  their 
teeth  projected  in  tusks,  the  tongue  swollen  and  hang- 
ing from  the  mouth  ;  their  eyes  shot  fire  like  those  of 
the  poisonous  black  serpent. 

With  these  dire  hosts  came  the  assault  upon  the 
single  solitary  soul.  But  in  vain ;  utterly  impotent 
and  baffled  they  were.  The  pikes,  javelins,  and  the 
huge  rocks  even,  that  they  hurled  at  him,  transmuted 


THE  LIFE.  3! 

to  flowers,     and   gathered  in  garlands    about   his    head. 
Papiyan   made  other  attempts.      Foiled  in  violence,  he 
tried    the    arts    of    persuasion,    sent   his  daughters,   the 
beautiful  Apsaras,   to  tempt  Bodhisattva,*  exhibiting  to 
him    the    thirty-two   kinds   of   bewitchment    known    to 
women.       They    sang    and   they   danced    before   him, 
and    plied   him   with   all    imaginable   fascinations    and 
seductive  charms,   but  they  were  alike  unsuccessful  as 
their  brothers  had  been.       Nay,    they  were   themselves 
overcome,  and  out  of   compelled   respect  and  esteem, 
broke    forth    in    songs   of    praise    to    that   virtue  which 
was    too  high    that    their   art   could    touch.       Papiyan 
puts    forth    once    more   a   last    desperate    attempt,   but 
is   disappointed  and  stung,   to   see  his  very   sons,  who 
had     been     most    eager    for    the    conflict,    turned    to 
adore    and    worship    Gautama.       In     his    despair    he 
smote  upon  his  breast  and  uttered  groans;   retiring  by 
himself,    he   traced  with    his   arrow  upon    the   ground, 
"My   kingdom    is   departed. "f      Such   is   the   legend, 
wrought   in    all  the  extravagance  of  Oriental    imagina- 
tion, and  yet  it  is  nowise  difficult  to  see  the  ground- 
work of  severe  truth  that  lay  at  the  bottom. 

*  Bodhisattva,  a  general  term  applied  to  characterize  any  one 
who  is  aspiring  and  striving  after  the  Buddhahood  —  state  of  superior 
wisdom  and  liberation. 

f  The  scene  of  the  temptation  also  is  depicted  on  the  northern 
gateway  of  the  temple  at  Sanchi,  middle  beam.  See  Fergusson  as 
as  above,  frontispiece. 


32  BUDDHA. 

But  we  have  anticipated  a  little.  Before  Gau- 
tama had  passed  all  these  conflicts,  he  had  renounced 
the  ascetic  practices  of  the  Brahmans,  satisfied  that 
they  afforded  not  the  vaunted  road  to  deliverance, 
and  returned  to  a  more  free  and  normal  life.  "As 
the  man,"  he  somewhere  says,  "wko  would  discourse 
sweet  music,  must  tune,  the  strings  of  his  instru- 
ment to  the  medium  point  of  tension,  so  he  who 
would  arrive  at  the  condition  of  Buddha  must  exer- 
cise himself  in  a  medium  course  of  discipline." 
This  scandalized  the  five  friends  who  had  followed 
him  from  Rajagnha,  and  they  forsook  him  in  deep 
displeasure.  He  was  left  alone,  and  by  himself  he 
commenced  to  elaborate  with  patient  care  the  thought 
which  to  his  mind  was  to  be  the  life  of  the  world. 

He  had  learned  himself,  he  had  vanquished  his 
adversaries,  he  knew  now  somewhat  of  the  foes  he 
he  was  to  meet,  and  his  power  to  resist  them.  But 
had  he  got  distinct  view  of  the  high  wisdom  ? 
Did  he  see  the  ivay  so  clearly  that  he  could  make 
it  plain  to  others?  He  recalled  the  experiences  of 
his  childhood,  the  splendid  visions  that  had  come 
to  him  in  early  years  in  that  garden  of  his  father's 
under  the  bamboo  tree.  Would  his  thought,  ripened 
by  reflection,  fulfil  and  realize  these  high  promises? 
Could  the  day-dream  become  a  reality?  After  days 
and  weeks  spent  in  deep,  rapt  thought,  he  was  able 


THE  LIFE.  33 

to  say,  Yes.  He  had  found  the  way,  had  seen  the 
vision  of  life  —  the  way,  he  describes  it,  "of  the 
sacrifice  of  sense,  the  way  which  shows  the  path  of 
deliverance,  leads  to  the  possession  of  universal 
knowledge,  the  way  of  remembrance  and  of  clear 
judgment,  softening  old  age  and  death,  calm,  with- 
out anxiety,  free  from  all  fear,  and  bringing  to  the 
home  of  Nirvana."  Here  he  had  become  as  he 
deemed,  Buddha,  the  illuminated,  fully  conscious, 
perfectly  emancipate  and  free.  An  entire  day  and 
night,  it  is  said,  he  sat  under  the  Bodhi  tree,  and  it 
had  become  the  last  watch,  the  first  gleam  of  the 
day-dawn,  when  the  vision  came,  "he. was  clothed 
with  the  quality  of  perfect  wisdom,  he  attained  the 
triple  science."  All  nature  at  this  momeiu  testified 
her  joy.  "All  the  flower-trees  in  the  various  sak- 
walas  (systems  of  worlds)  put  forth  blossoms  ;  and  to 
the  same  extent  the  fruit-trees  became  laden  with 
fruit.  On  the  trunks  and  branches  there  were  lotus- 
flowers,  whilst  garlands  were  suspended  from  the  sky. 
The  rocks  were  rent,  and  upon  them  flowers  appeared, 
in  ranges  of  seven,  one  above  the  other.  The  Lokan- 
tarika  hills,  80,000  miles  in  extent,  in  all  these  sak- 
walas,  were  illuminated  by  a  more  brilliant  light  than 
could  have  been  made  by  seven  suns.  The  waters 
of  the  great  ocean,  840,000  miles  deep,  became  fresh. 
The  streams  of  the  rivers  were  arrested.  The  blind 


34 


BUDDHA. 


from  birth  saw,   the  deaf  heard,  the  lame  walked,  and 
the  bound  prisoner  was  set  free. "  * 

The  place  where  he  was  visited  with  this  high 
experience  is  celebrated  in  the  Buddhistic  annals;  it 
was  called  Bodhimanda — the  seat  of  intelligence. 
The  tree  under  which  Gautama  was  sitting  became 
historic,  and  the  faithful  in  after  ages  did  not  fail 
to  gather  about  it,  and  pay  there  a  most  devout 
worship.  In  the  year  632  of  our  era,  Hiouen  Thsang, 
the  Chinese  pilgrim,  found  the  tree,  or  at  least  what 
was  reputed  to  be  it,  still  standing.  It  was  protected 
by  a  circle  of  brick  wall,  and  approached  by  gates 
opening  on  the  east,  south  and  west.  "Its  trunk 
was  of  creamy  white,  its  leaves  green  and  glossy,  and 
according  to  the  information  given  our  traveler  they 
never  fell,  either  in  autumn  or  winter.  Only  on  the 
anniversary-day  of  the  Nirvana  (death)  of  Buddha  they 
fall  all  at  once,  to  be  reproduced  the  next  day  more 
beautiful  than  before.  Each  year,  on  that  same  day, 
the  kings,  ministers,  magistrates,  etc.,  gather  about  it, 
shower  it  with  milk,  illumine  with  lamps,  scatter 
flowers  about  it,  and  carry  away  the  leaves  that  have 
fallen."  f 


*  Hardy's  Legends  and  Theories  of  the  Buddhists,  pp.  139,  140. 
See  also  Bigandet's  Legend,  etc.,  pp.  90,  91. 

f  St.  Hilaire's  Bouddha,  pp.  29,  30. 


THE  LIFE. 


35 


There  was  still  one  ground  on  which  Buddha  felt 
hesitation.  Sure  as  he  was  of  himself,  clear  as  was 
his  own  view  of  the  way,  he  had  doubt  whether  this 
high  doctrine  could  be  commended  by  him  so  it 
should  be  accepted.  "It  is  subtle  and  deep,  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  understanding,  open  only  to  wise 
souls ;  is  in  conflict  with  all  the  world.  How  will  it 
be  received  ?  Men  will  not  apprehend  it.  It  may 
only  be  rejected,  and  I  be  mocked.  Hardly  should 
I  expose  myself  to  their  insults,  and  be  my  own 
victim."  Three  times  he  was  on  the  point  of  yield- 
ing, taking  in  view  the  easily  possible  —  nay,  as 
seemed,  the  very  probable  consequences  of  his  stand- 
ing forth  as  a  public  teacher.  But  consideration 
of  the  needs  of  men  prevailed,  and  banished  every 
hesitation. 

"Three  classes  of  men/'  he  said  within  himself, 
"one  finds,  very  much  as  when  one  sits  beside  a, 
tank  and  notes  the  water-lilies  growing  in  it ;  he  sees 
some  below  the  surface,  others  with  heads  raised 
quite  above  it,  and  others  still  just  on  the  surface. 
So  all  mankind  are  of  these  three — the  sunken,  the 
hopelessly  bad,  the  confirmedly  virtuous,  and  the 
undecided,  the  wavering.  The  first  I  may  not  help, 
the  second  are  strong,  and  do  not  need  me,  but  the 
third — shall  I  leave  them  to  perish?  Perhaps  my 
word  will  save  them,  or  some  of  them."  Infinite 


36  BUDDHA. 

compassion  moved  him,  and  he  resolved  to  devote 
himself  henceforth,  without  thought  of  anything  per- 
sonal to  himself,  to  the  redemption  of  man. 

His  first  idea  was  that  he  would  seek  his  old 
masters  at  Vaisali  and  Rajagriha,  both  of  whom  he 
remembered  with  tender  affection.  But  it  was  a  long 
while  since  he  parted  from  them,  and  in  the  interval 
they  had  passed  away.  Could  he  have  been  earlier, 
he  said  with  himself,  sorrowfully,  he  might  have  helped 
these  old  friends ;  now,  alas !  it  was  too  late.  His 
next  thought  was  of  the  five  disciples  who  had  left 
him,  and  he  resolved  to  seek  them.  They  were  all 
young  men  of  a  generous  strain ;  might  be  they  would 
hear  the  law.  They  were  at  Varanasi  ( Benares), 
and  he  must  needs  cross  the  Ganges.  The  river 
was  at  this  time  high  and  very  rapid,  and  he  found 
some  difficulty  in  getting  ferried  over,  for  he  had  no 
money  to  pay  with.  King  Bimbisara,  learning  of  the 
circumstance,  afterwards  abolished  all  charge  for  fer- 
riage to  devotees. 

The  five  saw  him  approaching,  and  all  their  old 
remembrance  of  the  offense  he  gave  them  came  up. 
They  agreed  among  themselves  that  they  would  have 
no  conversation  with  him,  would  offer  him  no  seat, 
have  nothing  to  do  with  him.  But  the  presence  of 
their  old  master  disarmed  them,  they  sat  uneasy,  and 
instinctively  were  constrained  to  rise  and  honor  him. 


THE  LIFE.  3  7 

They  gave  him  a  mat,  and  water  for  his  feet,  and 
addressed  him,  "Ayushmat  (Master)  Gautama,  wel- 
come !  Pray  sit  down  upon  the  mat.  Sire,  have 
you  risen  beyond  human  law,  and  attained  clear 
vision  of  the  sublime  science?"  "Call  me  not 
Ayushmat,"  he  responded.  "Long  time  have  I 
remained  without  profit  to  you.  I  have  not  given 
you  help  or  any  benefit.  Yes,  I  have  arrived  at 
clear  vision  of  immortality,  have  seen  the  way  that 
guides  thither.  Come,  let  me  teach  you  the  Law. 
Your  spirits  shall  be  delivered  by  the  destruction  of 
'all  your  faults,  and  clear  knowledge  of  yourselves; 
you  shall  make  an  end  of'  births,  and  arrive  at 
supreme  possession."  Then  pleasantly  he  recalled  to 
them  the  language,  not  kindly,  they  had  indulged  in 
as  they  saw  him  coming.  Ashamed  and  confused 
they  confessed  their  sins,  and  gladly  embraced  him 
as  their  teacher  and  the  guide  of  the  world.  The 
interview,  we  are  told,  on  this  first  meeting  was 
long,  lasted  to  the  latest  watch  of  the  night,  and 
Buddha  unfolded  to  them  freely  his  doctrine.  It 
was  the  enthusiasm  of  the  teacher  freshly  entered 
upon  his  work ;  of  the  learner,  hearing  for  the  first 
time  the  quickening  word. 

Benares  was,  as  it  still  is,  a  distinguished  seat  and 
radiating  center  of  the  Brahmanical  doctrine.  Here 
was  good  missionary  ground,  and  the  young  prophet 


3  8  BUDDHA. 

improved  it  well.  As  the  story  reads,  here  he  turned, 
for  the  first  time,  the  wheel  of  the  law.  The  preach- 
ing was  earnest  and  startling,  and  for  a  time  com- 
manded all  ears.  All  the  classes,  from  Brahman  to 
Kandala,  gathered  to  hear  it.  As  usual,  men  blessed 
and  cursed.  Some  accepted  gladly,  others  turned 
away  with  scorn  and  offense.  The  old  charge  of  mad- 
ness was  repeated.  They  said,  "The  son  of  the  king 
has  lost  his  reason."  The  legends  are  mostly  silent 
concerning  this  history,  and  of  others  how  much,  in 
what  they  profess  to  give,  is  authentic  we  cannot  know. 
The  first  conversion  after  that  of  the  five,  one 
relation  tells  us,  was  of  a  young  layman,  son  of  a 
very  wealthy  citizen  of  Benares.  This  youth,  wearied 
and  sick  with  the  round  of  luxuries  and  sensuous 
pleasures  that  were  provided  for  him,  stole  away  by 
night  from  his  home  and  sought  the  feet  of  the 
saint,  heard  the  law,  and  gladly  accepted.  The 
father,  going  all  about  in  search  of  his  son,  came 
erewhile  into  the  same  presence,  and  he  too  was  won. 
"O,  illustrious  master,"  he  exclaimed,  "your  doctrine 
is  a  most  excellent  one ;  when  you  preach  it  you 
do  like  one  who  replaces  on  its  base  an  upset  cup ; 
like  one  who  brings  to  light  precious  things  that  had 
hitherto  remained  in  darkness ;  one  who  opens  the 
mind's  eyes  that  they  may  see  the  pure  truth." 
Invited  to  the  house  of  the  father,  Buddha  gained 


THE  LIFE. 


39 


the  mother  and  the  wife  of  the  young  man.  Next 
four  young  men,  then  fifty,  we  are  told,  of  the  best 
in  the  city,  friends  and  companions  of  this  youth, 
moved  by  his  example,  came  in  and  gave  up  their 
lives  to  religion.  "All  these/'  as  one  of  the  legends 
in  Chinese  puts  it,  "were  but  instances  of  the  virtue 
of  the  overflowing  streams  of  the  heavenly  dew 
(divine  grace),  and  the  enlightening  power  of  the 
mani  gem  (divine  wisdom)/' 

The  discipleship  so  numerous,  counting  now  more 
than  sixty,  Buddha  must  erewhile  send  these  men 
'forth  to  evangelize.  The  good  news  was  for  all  the 
world ;  let  them  hasten  to  preach  it  to  every  crea- 
ture. "Let  us  part  with  each  other,"  the  legend 
reports  him  as  saying,  "and  proceed  in  various  and 
opposite  directions.  Go  ye  now,  and  preach  the 
most  excellent  law,  expounding  every  point  thereof, 
and  unfolding  it  with  care.  Explain  the  beginning 
and  middle  and  end  of  the  law  to  all  men  without 
exception.  You  will  meet,  doubtless,  with  a  great 
number  of  mortals,  not  as  yet  hopelessly  given  up 
to  their  passions,  who  will  avail  themselves  of  your 
preaching  for  reconquering  their  hitherto  forfeited 
liberty,  and  freeing  themselves  from  the  thralldom  of 
passions."  This  was  the  first  sending  forth  of  the 
apostles,  of  which  history  has  preserved  us  any  record. 
The  mission,  as  we  see,  was  to  humanity. 


40 


BUDDHA. 


Such  work  was  accomplished  not  without  oppo- 
sition. There  were  heart-burnings,  jealousies,  ill 
reports,  and  at  length  plots,  machinations  against 
him,  so  that  at  times  he  was  in  imminent  peril  of 
his  life.  The  authors  and  instigators,  as  we  should 
naturally  know,  were  the  Brahmans.  They  instantly 
saw  how  this  reform  would  bear  upon  their  exclusive 
claims  and  position,  and  they  left  no  means  untried 
to  crush  it  in  its  incipiency.  Here  was  a  man  that 
met  them  on  their  own  ground,  and  worsted  them  ; 
that  challenged  them  to  public  debate,  and  was  too 
much  for  them,  put  them  to  shame,  and  what  could 
be  done  with  him  but  to  silence  his  voice?  Mild 
as  he  was,  Buddha  did  not  spare  them  ;  he  exposed 
their  tricks  and  impostures,  and  set  the  brand  upon 
them  deep,  of  hypocrites  and  charlatans.  Probably 
to  the  fact  of  the  more  pacific  or  less  violent  temper 
of  the  Indian  blood  we  owe  it  that  here  again  was 
not  enacted  such  tragedy  as  that  of  the  crucifixion 
at  Jerusalem,  or  the  poisoning  at  Athens. 

Leaving  Benares  the  story  conducts  him  to  the 
forest  of  Uruvilva,  where  he  wrought  many  conver- 
sions—  the  legend  says  one  thousand,  including  the 
distinguished  teacher  Kasyapa  —  and  erewhile  to 
Rajagriha.  King  Bimbasara  had  invited  him  hither. 
His  reception  was  very  hospitable,  and  in  this  neigh- 
borhood, Magadha,  and  in  Kosala,  whose  capital  was 


THE  LIFE.  4I 

Sravasti,  and  king,  Prasenajit,  very  friendly  to  Buddha, 
he  seems  to  have  spent  thenceforth  a  large  part  of 
his  life.  One  of  his  favorite  resorts  was  a  high  hill, 
called  the  Vulture  Peak,  from  a  fancied  resemblance 
to  that  bird,  overlooking  Rajagriha ;  it  afforded  mag- 
nificent views,  as  also  fine  shade  and  fountains. 
Some  of  his  most  famous  discourses  are  marked  as 
having  been  delivered  here.  Hard  by  was  the  garden 
or  grove  of  Kalantaka,  which  a  rich  merchant  of  the 
city  presented  him,  having  built  upon  it  a  superb 
monastery,  for  the  use  of  the  disciples.  Here  were 
converted  Sariputra,  Katyayana  and  Maudgalyayana, 
names  eminently  distinguished  in  the  subsequent 
history.  Another  grove,  Nalanda,  is  mentioned,  a 
little  farther  distant  from  the  city,  which  became  very 
celebrated  in  this  connection.  Hiouen  Thsang  saw 
here,  at  the  time  of  his  visit,  immense  monasteries, 
the  finest,  he  tells  us,  in  all  India,  and  ten  thousand 
monks  dwelling  in  them,  all  maintained  at  the  public 
expense. 

But  in  Kosala,  which  was  north  of  the  Ganges, 
Buddha  spent  more  time  than  in  Magadha.  King 
Prasenajit  invited  him  to  his  capital,  and  became  a 
disciple.  Here  also,  near  the  city,  was  a  grove  that 
became  famous,  one  that  Anatha  Pindika,  a  minister 
•6f  the  king,  long-time  distinguished  for  his  boundless 
beneficence  to  the  poor  and  orphaned,  purchased .  and 


42 


BUDDHA. 


presented  to  him.  He  also  erected  upon  it  a 
monastery,  and  here,  it  is  said,  that  for  twenty-three 
years  Buddha  made  his  principal  residence,  teaching 
all  that  came.  Prajapati,  his  aunt,  embraced  the 
faith  here,  and  became  the  first  of  the  female  Bud- 
dhist devotees.  A  great  innovation  it  was  upon  the 
old-time  usage,  to  admit  females  to  monastic  orders, 
and  Ananda,  his  cousin,  is  said  to  have  been  largely 
instrumental  in  effecting  it. 

After  a  separation  of  twelve  years,  Buddha  saw 
again  his  father  and  kindred  of  Kapilavastu.  He 
had  attained  the  illumination  and  deliverance,  and 
the  time  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  was  come. 
The  father,  grieved  much  at  the  withdrawal  of  his 
son,  sent  many  messengers,  successively,  to  commu- 
nicate with  him,  but  all  were  so  charmed  by  his 
person  and  speech  that  they  forgot  to  return.  At 
length  he  sent  one  of  his  ministers,  Tcharka.  He, 
like  the  rest,  was  won,  but  returned,  to  tell  the  king 
what  he  had  seen,  and  announced  the  contemplated 
visit.  The  king  anticipated,  and  came  to  see  his 
son.  What  effect  this  had  upon  the  father  we  know 
not,  but  we  are  told  that  Buddha  soon  after  went 
to  Kapilavastu,  and  all  the  Sakyas,  hearing  him, 
embraced  the  faith.  Among  them  was  his  son, 
Rahula.  And  Gopa,  or,  as  some  say,  Yasodhara, 
who,  in  sympathy,  had  followed  her  husband  all  the 


THE  LlfiE.  43 

while  since  his  departure,  adopting,  fast  as  she  learned 
of  them,  his  diet  and  his  plain  style  of  dress  — 
she  and  five  hundred  other  women  of  rank  became 
converts  and  assumed  the  monastic  robe. 

The  scene  of  his  activity  must  have  been  wider 
than  the  comparatively  narrow  domain  we  have  men- 
tioned. We  hear  of  him  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus 
—  the  scene  of  his  feeding  a  hungry  tigress  with  his 
own  arm  is  laid  here,  and  Hiouen  Thsang,  eleven 
hundred  years  later,  found  the  grass,  he  tells  us, 
still  red  with  the  blood  that  flowed,  —  and  there  was 
probably  little  of  Northern  India  that  he  did  not  at 
some  time  visit.  Thfee  several  times,  the  Singhalese 
annals  tell  us,  he  visited  their  island,  and  he  left 
there  in  two  places  the  prints  of  his  sacred  feet. 
But  the  legends  are  very  fragmentary  and  uncertain 
here,  long  stretches  of  years  are  left  entirely  blank, 
and  much  that  is  said  of  the  wide  journeyings,  etc., 
may  quite  likely  be  a  later  addition.  We  have 
enough  to  show  that  it  was  a  very  busy  life,  intensely 
devoted  to  the  word  and  works  of  kindliness  and 
mercy.  Probably  a  portion  of  those  years  over  which 
the  veil  of  silence  hangs  was  spent  in  withdrawal, 
hiding  away  from  the  reach  of  those  enemies  that 
sought  his  blood. 

We  select  from  among  the  incidents  related,  a  few, 
which,  whether  authentic  or  not,  have  a  verisimilitude 

t 


44  BUDDHA. 

and  are  not  unworthy  of  record.  King  Suddhodana, 
already  far  advanced  in  years,  was  seized  with  a 
violent  distemper,  that  gave  him  no  rest,  by  day 
or  by  night.  He  felt  strong,  irrepressible  desire  once 
more  to  see  his  son.  Buddha,  while  in  the  early 
morning,  as  was  his  wont,  viewing  the  condition  of 
all  beings,  ,and  devising  in  his  compassionate  heart 
what  might  be  done  for  them,  saw  the  condition  of 
his  father,  and  he  hastened,  traveling,  as  did  Abaris 
the  Hyperborean,  through  the  air,  to  his  side.  By 
skillful  appliances  he  healed  the  disease,  but,  announc- 
ing to  Suddhodana  that  in  seven  days  he  must  die, 
expounded  to  him  the  law^.  Suddhodana  saw, 
believed  and  found  repose.  "Rocking  himself  in  the 
bosom  of  these  comforting  truths,"  he  spent  happily  the 
few  days  he  had  yet  to  live.  On  the  last  day,  in  pres- 
ence of  all  his  royal  attendants,  he  asked  pardon  for 
all  the  offenses  he  had  committed  in  thought,  word 
or  deed,  and  expired  in  the  arms  of  his  son,  in  the 
ninety-seventh  year  of  his  age.  Buddha  consoled  the 
wife,  Prajapati,  by  reminding  of  the  transience  of  all 
earthly,  the  inevitable  separation  that  comes  to  every 
one,  and  the  home  of  possession  to  which  the  four 
paths  lead. 

In   the   fields   one    day   he    met  a    Brahman,   who  . 
was   a   farmer,  with   bullocks,  plough,  seed,   etc.       He 
was     tilling  'and     planting     for     the     future     harvest. 


THE  LIFE. 


45 


Entering  into  conversation  with  him  upon  his  work, 
and  the  instruments  employed  in  the  performance,  he 
hinted  that  he  himself  was  also  a  husbandman,  culti- 
vating a  domain,  and  having  need  of  and  using  all  the 
apparatus  found  with  the  best  furnished  farmer.  The 
Brahman,  somewhat  suprised  and  puzzled,  Buddha 
explains  to  him  what  in  this  husbandry  is  seed,  what 
the  plough,  the  reins  for  guiding,  the  bullocks,  etc. 
"The  bullocks  have  to  work  hard  to  complete  the 
task  of  tillage.  So  the  sage  has  to  struggle  hard  to 
till  perfectly  and  cultivate  thoroughly  the  soil  of  his 
own  being,  and  reach  the  happy  state  of  Nirvana." 
The  worker  in  the  field  of  earth  is  sometimes  dis- 
appointed, sometimes  feels  the  pangs  of  hunger.  But 
the  worker  in  the  field  of  wisdom,  he  says,  knows 
no  failure,  and  is  exempt  from  all  suffering  and 
sorrow.  He  eats  the  fruit  of  his  labor,  and  is  fully 
satisfied  when  he  beholds  Nirvana. 

A  Brahman  and  his  wife,  in  one  of  the  towns 
he  visited,  were  very  friendly,  proffered  him  hospi- 
tality and  sought  his  blessing.  During  many  exist- 
ences, they  said,  we  have  always  been  happily  united. 
Not  an  unpleasant  word  has  ever  passed  between  us. 
We  pray  that  in  our  coming  existence  the  same  love 
and  affection  may  ever  unite  us  together  Their 
request  was  granted ;  in  presence  of  a  large  assembly 
Buddha  pronounced  them  blessed,  happy  among  all 


4  6  BUDDHA. 

men  and  women.  A  poor  weaver's  daughter,  intensely 
desirous  to  hear  the  teacher,  stops  on  her  way  to  the 
loom,  quill  and  yarn  in  her  hand,  and  sits  down 
timidly  behind  the  furthermost  rank  of  the  congre- 
gation. The  saint  sees  her,  and  calls  her  forward, 
catechises,  instructs  and  blesses  her,  extolling  her 
thoughtful  wisdom  and  earnest  love  for  the  true. 

In  a  forest  of  Kosala  dwelt  a  famous  robber  and 
murderer,  the  terror  of  the  neighborhood.  Many 
had  fallen  victims,  and  the  king  was  powerless  to 
afford  protection  against  him.  Buddha,  coming  that 
way,  went,  despite  all  remonstrances,  boldly  to  his 
den.  Ugalimala,  very  wroth,  set  out  instantly  to 
slay.  him.  But  the  saint,  by  his  perfect  self-posses- 
sion, his  kindliness,  benignity  and  commanding  pres- 
ence disarmed,  subdued  the  hard  man,  won  him  to 
the  law,  and  brought  him  in  a  disciple.  Henceforth 
he  lived  worthily  and  rose  to  the  attainment  of  a 
Rahan. 

Devadatta,  a  cousin,  and  for  a  time  a  disciple  of 
Buddha,  with  the  full  countenance  of  King  Ajata- 
satru,  hired  thirty  bowmen  to  take  his  life.  Practiced 
ruffians,  they  were  nothing  loth,  rather  were  eager 
for  the  deed.  But  just  as  they  were  about  to  put  it 
into  execution,  they  were  restrained,  incapacitated, 
"they  felt  themselves  overawed  by  the  presence  of 
Buddha."  Instead  of  his  murderers  they  became 


THE  LIFE. 


47 


worshipers,  "fell  at  his  feet,  craved  pardon,  listened 
to  his  preaching,  and  were  converted."  At  another 
time  an  elephant,  infuriated,  maddened  by  liquor  that 
had  been  forced  down  his  throat,  was  set  upon  him 
as  he  was  quietly  walking  in  the  street.  But  the 
elephant,  as  he  came  into  his  presence,  far  from  doing 
him  injury,  stood  for  a  while,  then  knelt  before  him.* 
Such  relations  may  be  in  a  degree  fabulous,  yet  they 
rest  in  a  groundwork  of  severe  truth  ;  the  writer  drew 
from  ideals,  was  veracious.  It  is  natural  to  believe 
in  the  greatness  of  the  soul,  to  think  it  will  some- 
times bear  itself  superior  to  all,  work  every  conquest ; 
nay,  it  is  sometimes  found  so. 

Near  the  close  of  his  life  —  he  was  already 
advanced  in  years  —  a  very  tragic  fortune  befell  his 
family  and  native  city.  A  neighboring  king,  for  some 
fancied  offense,  marched  against  it,  captured  it  and 
put  all  the  inhabitants  to  the  sword.  Sakya,  who 
had  in  vain  attempted  to  calm  this  vindictive  ruler, 
and  dissuade  him  from  his  purpose  of  blood,  remained, 
as  it  is  related,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  unhappy 
city,  and  heard  distinctly  the  wild  din  of  the  battle 
and  the  wail  of  the  dying.  After  Virudhaka's  (the 
king's)  departure  he  repaired  in  the  night-time  alone 
to  the  city,  and  strolled  through  its  desolate  and 

Bigandet,  pp.  249,  250. 


4  8  BUDDHA. 

corpse-covered  streets.  In  that  charming  garden,  near 
Suddhodana's  palace,  where  in  his  childhood  he  had 
spent  days  together,  he  heard  only  death-groans,  and 
saw  by  the  starlight  naked,  mutilated  bodies,  mem- 
bers and  trunks,  scattered  promiscuously  about.  Many 
of  the  victims  were  already  dead,  some  in  the  last 
struggle.  "He  went  from  one  to  another,  ministered 
to  them  of  his  deep  sympathy,  and  comforted  them 
in  the  assurance  of  the  blessed  beyond."  * 

About  forty-five  years  he  had  spent  in  unremit- 
ting self-denial  and  toil,  his  courage  never  failing, 
his  zeal  never  for  an  instant  growing  cold,  when  the 
time  for  his  departure  had  come.  He  was  nearly 
eighty  years  old.  He  was  returning  from  Rajagriha, 
towards  Kosala,  accompanied  by  Ananda,  his  cousin, 
and  a  large  crowd  of  disciples.  Standing  upon  a 
square  stone,  on  the  bank  of  the  Ganges,  he  looked 
back  towards  Rajagriha,  and  remarked,  with  deep 
emotion,  "Never  again  shall  I  see  that  city  or  the 
Throne  of  Diamond" — this  last  being  the  place  where 
he  wrought  his  great  victory  and  attained  the  Bud- 
dhahood.  A  like  touching  adieu  he  bade  to  Vaisali. 
He  had  not  quite  reached  the  city  of  Kusinagara  f 


*  Koeppen's  Buddha,  I.,  pp.  113,  114. 

f  Lying  a  little  more  than  one  hundred  miles  northwest  of  the 
present  Patna. 


THE  LIFE, 


49 


—  city  of  Kusa  grass — when  he  felt  that  the  end 
was  at  hand.  He  requested  Ananda  to  prepare  a 
place  for  him  in  a  forest  of  Sala  trees  (shorea  robusta] 
hard  by.  Pointing  out  two  tall  trees  on  the  edge 
of  the  wood,  he  directed  that  the  couch  should  be 
laid  between  them.  Though  the  distance  was  short 
he  made  it  only  with  great  embarrassment,  was  com- 
pelled to  rest  twenty-five  times  on  the  way.  Beneath 
these  trees  he  spent  his  last  hours,  busily  engaged 
upon  the  themes  that  had  occupied  his  life.  "The 
sun  and  moon  shall  decay ;  what,  then,  is  the  sparkle 
of  the  glow-worm  ?  Therefore  he  exhorted  them  to 
strive  after  the  imperishable  body,  to  cast  away  the 
unreal."  All  the  watches  of  the  night  he  employed 
in  kindly  counsel  to  his  friends,  in  earnest  preaching 
to  the  Malla  princes  and  the  Brahman  Subhadra, 
whom  he  converted  there ;  at  the  break  of  day  he 
passed  away.  This  occurred,  according  to  the  most 
probable  determination,  about  477  B.  C.* 

While  he  was  reclining  on  the  couch,  the  account 
is  that  the  two  Sala  trees  became  loaded  with  fragrant 
blossoms,  which  gently  dropped  above  and  all  around 
his  person,  so  almost  to  cover  it.  Not  only  these, 
but  all  in  the  forest,  and  in  ten  thousand  worlds, 

*  The  Ceylonese  Buddhists  fix  the  time  at  543  B.  C.  Practically 
the  difference  is  of  but  little  moment.  Bunsen,  on  what  authority 
does  not  appear,  makes  his  death  to  have  occurred  in  the  fifty-sixth 
year  of  his  age. 


50  BIJDDHA. 

went  likewise  into  bloom.  As  the  end  approached, 
the  blood  of  the  Palasa  flower  poured  forth,  and  at 
the  moment  of  the  death  a  fearful  earthquake  occurred, 
that  shook  the  whole  world ;  sun  and  moon  were 
darkened,  .meteors  flashed  abroad,  and  finest  dirge 
music,  sounding  from  the  skies,  filled  the  air.* 

Ananda  had  inquired  what  ceremonies  were  to  be 
performed  after  his  demise.  "Be  not  much  concerned 
about  what  shall  remain  of  me  after  my, Nirvana,"  was 
the  reply,  ' '  rather  be  earnest  to  practice  the  works  that 
lead  to  perfection.  Put  on  those  inward  dispositions 
that  will  enable  you  to  reach  the  undisturbed  rest  of 
Nirvana."  "Believe  not,"  he  says  again,  "that  when 
I  shall  have  disappeared  from  existence  and  be  no 
longer  with  you,  Buddha  has  left  you  and  ceased  to 
dwell  among  you.  The  law  contained  in  Ihose  sacred 
instructions  which  I  have  given  shall  be  your  teacher. 
By  means  of  the  doctrines  which  I  have  delivered  to 
you,  I  will  continue  to.  remain  amongst  you.  "  j*  Obedi- 
ence, he  insists,  is  greater  than  sacrifice.  The  Nagas, 

*  Beal's  Catena,  p.  137.  Bigandet,  Legend,  etc.,  p.  323.  Koep- 
pen,  I.,  p.  115. 

f  In  one  of  the  Sutras  of  the  Prajna  Paramita  class  in  the  Chinese, 
on  "the  mystical  body  of  Tathagata,  without  any  distinct  character- 
istic," we  find  this :  "  He  who  looks  for  me,  /'.  <?.,  for  the  true  Tatha- 
gata, through  any  material  form,  or  seeks  me  through  any  audible 
sound,  that  man  has  entered  on  an  erroneous  course,  and  shall  never 
behold  Tathagata.— Beal's  Catena,  p.  277. 


THE  LIFE.  51 

Galongs  and  Nats,  all  coming  from  their  respect- 
tive  seats  in  the  other  worlds,  showered  flowers 
and  perfumes,  like  dew,  over  and  about  his  person. 
He  said  to  Ananda,  "The  man  or  woman  who 
practices  the  excellent  works  leading  to  perfect  hap- 
piness—  these  are  the  persons  that  render  me  a  true 
homage  and  present  to  me  a  most  agreeable  offering. 
The  observance  of  the  law  alone  entitles  to  the  right 
of  belonging  to  my  religion."  To  Ananda,  who  was 
the  beloved  disciple,  the  John  of  this  band,  he  pre- 
dicts something  of  his  future,  the  attraction  he  shall 
exercise,  the  warm,  glowing  love  he  shall  win.  "An- 
anda is  graceful  and  full  of  amiability  amidst  all  other 
Rahans.  He  has  heard  and  seen  much,  he  shines 
in  the  midst  of  the  assembly.  Rahans  will  come 
from  a  distance,  on  hearing  all  that  is  said  of  his 
graces,  to  see  and  admire  him ;  and  all  will  agree 
in  saying  that  what  they  observe  surpasses  all  that 
they  had  heard."  "Enraptured  at  the  flow  of  his 
tender,  touching  and  heart-moving  eloquence,  visitors 
shall  eagerly  listen  to  him  ;  they  will  experience  sad- 
ness only  when  his  silence  shall  deprive  them  of  that 
food  their  mind  and  heart  were  feasting  on." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  wishes  of  the  saint 
—  and  it  would  seem  that  he  would  have  made  very 
little  account  of  the  lifeless,  perishing  body  —  the 
grandest  obsequies  followed  upon  his  death.  They 


52  BUDDHA. 

were  after  the  manner  appointed  for  the  Chakra- 
varttin  kings,  to  whom,  by  descent,  he  reputedly 
belonged.  On  the  eighth  day  the  body  was  burned. 
At  first  the  flames  refused  to  do  their  office,  but 
when  Kasyapa  had  honored.,  the  feet  of  the  dead,  the 
"flame  of  contemplation"  burst  forth  from  the  breast, 
and  consumed  the  entire  corpse.  The  bones  were 
of  pearly  whiteness,  and  they  exhaled  a  fragrant  odor, 
sweet  as  the  breath  of  heaven.  After  hot  disputes, 
which  the  history  tells  us,  but  for  the  remembrance 
of  the  amity  and  tender  spirit  of  affection  which  the 
Master  had  taught,  would  have  been  bloody,  these 
relics  were  divided  into  eight  portions,  and  distributed 
to  as  many  groups  of  friends,  not  omitting  the  Sakyas. 
Immense  topes  were  afterwards  erected  over  the  several 
places  where  they  lay,»  but  in  the  time  of  King  Asoka, 
about  250  B.  C,  they  were  gathered  together  again, 
redistributed,  and  sent  abroad  over  the  whole  of  India. 
We  have  some  particulars  of  the  person  of  this 
saint.  He  was  not  only  a  model  of  wisdom,  sanctity, 
high  character,  but  also  of  physical  beauty.  In  the 
crown,  we  are  told,  his  head  rose  very  high,  the  hair 
was  curly,  and  of  deep  black,  the  forehead  broad  and 
smooth,  "the  eye-lashes  like  those  of  a  heifer,"  and 
the  eyes  jet  black.  "His  brows  were  arched  like 
the  rainbow,  his  eyes  ribbed  like  the  leaf  of  the  lotus." 
The  teeth,  in  number  forty,  were  regular,  and  of 


THE  LIFE. 


53 


pearly  whiteness.  Every  limb,  every  feature,  down  to 
the  lines  of  the  hand,  fingers,  finger-nails,  etc.,  was 
modeled  after  the  standard  of  perfect  beauty,  accord- 
ing to  the  Indian  ideal,  and  all  the  details  are 
carefully  given.  A  likeness,  accurate  to  the  life,  done 
in  sandal-wood,  is  said  to  have  been  executed  by  one 
of  the  disciples,  and  to  have  served  as  the  model  of 
all  the  statues  and  portraits  found  in  the  North, 
wherever  the  faith  penetrated.  Another,  a  portrait 
upon  canvas,  made  for  King  Bimbasara,  as  a  present 
to  a  neighboring  prince,  is  ascribed,  in  the  outline  at 
least,  to  Buddha  himself.  How  far  the  representa- 
tions we  now  have  were  modeled  upon  these  ancient 
pictures,  supposing  them  to  have  existed,  no  one,  of 
course,  can  tell.  The  face,  in  such  as  we  have  seen, 
bears  a  marked  expression  of  fineness,  of  sweetness, 
illumination  and  beauty.* 


*  The  sources  whence  we  have  drawn,  in  preparing  this  sketch, 
are  m  good  part  indicated  above.  We  name  them  together  here  : 
Barthelemy  St.  Hilaire's  Le  Bouddha  et  Sa  Religion.  Troisieme  Edi- 
tion, Paris,  1866.  C.  F.  Koeppen,  Die  Religion  des  Buddha,  undihre 
Entstehungt  Berlin,  1857,  1859.  Eugene  Bumouf  s  Introduction  a  la 
Histoire  du  Buddhisms  Indien,  Paris,  1844.  S.  Beal's  Catena  of  Bud- 
dhist Scriptures,  from  the  Chinese;  London,  1871.  Spence  Hardy's 
Eastern  Monachism,  London,  1860.  The  same,  Legends  and  Theories 
of  the  Buddhists,  London,  1866.  Wasseljew's  Buddhismus,  seine 
Dogmen,  Geschichte  und  Literatur,  St.  Petersburg,  1860  ;  and  last, 
but  not  least,  Bishop  Bigandet's  Life  or  Legend  of  Gaudama,  Rangoon, 
1866.  The  agreement  in  the  accounts  preserved  among  the  Northern 


54 


BUDDHA, 


Buddhists  and  the  Southern  respectively  is  singularly  close,  and  shows 
clearly  that  they  have  all  guarded  with  scrupulous  care  their  sacred 
records,  in  this  regard,  from  essential  change  since  their  separation, 
and  gives  good  ground  to  believe  that  we  have  them  now  in  all  import- 
ant respects,  as  they  were  when  first  committed  to  writing.  How  soon 
this  was  done  we  do  not  know,  but  there  is  evidence  that  the  Salita 
Vistara,  the  chief  book  of  this  kind  among  the  Northern  Buddhists, 
and  rendered  early  into  Chinese,  Thibetan,  etc.,  is  of  a  date  previous 
to  the  Christian  era.  See  Max  Mliller,  Chips,  L,  p.  259. 

In  Beal's  Catena,  pp.  130-142,  is  a  remarkable  statement  of  the 
legend,  made  by  Wong-Puh,  in  the  seventh  century,  who  drew,  as  he 
says,  from  the  old  records.  It  is  in  aphorisms,  and  written  in  the  style 
that  was  common  in  the  schools  at  an  early  date. 


II. 

THE  EFFECT. 

THE  success  that  attended  the  preaching  of  this 
new  faith  was  wonderful.  Preaching  itself  was  a 
novelty,  for  Burnouf  says  that,  so  far  as  he  finds,  it 
was  a  thing  unheard  of  in  India  before.*  Even 
during  the  life-time  of  its  founder,  his  doctrine  must 
have  obtained  a  considerable  prevalence,  slow  at  first, 
doubtless,  making  its  conquests  at  the  hardest,  but 
gaining  each  year,  until  at  length  it  became  broad- 
spread  over  the  country.  It  supplanted  Brahmanism 
largely  on  its  own  soil.  We  have  no  means  of  know- 
ing what  its  numerical  strength  then  was,  but  the 
following  must  have  been  large,  f  The  old  was  effete, 
gone  utterly  to  decay,  and  the  preaching  of  salvation 
by  method  so  simple,  natural,  pure  and  enforced  by 
life,  and  earnestness  so  devoted  and  transparent,  could 


*  Jntrod.  p.  194. 

f  The  number  reported  by  the  early  Buddhists  as  converted  directly 
by  Buddha  himself  is  1,250. — Wasseljew,  p.  26. 


56  BUDDHA. 

not  fail  to  draw  followers.*  It  brought  quickening 
regeneration  in  the  midst  of  prevailing  death.  It  was 
a  simple  word  of  repentance  and  obedience,  of  high 
consecration  and  pure  living,  practical  and  intelli- 
gible, so  far  as  the  ethereal  and  transcendent  truths 
that  dwell  in  light  inaccessible,  can  be  brought  to 
the  understanding.  There  was  no  ceremonial,  no 
elaborate  scheme  of  expiation  and  deliverance.  The 
handwriting  of  ordinances  was  blotted  out,  the  immense 
structures  broken  down  which  priestly  device  had 
thrown  about  the  soul  to  hedge  it  out  from  God. 
What  a  sense  of  relief  it  must  have  brought  to  many 
a  poor,  sick,  weary  and  harrassed  one,  those  may 
somewhat  imagine  who  have  known  the  like  in 
their  own  experience. 

Buddha  proclaimed  the  equality  of  all,  no  distinc- 
tion of  blood  or  caste ;  all  were  alike  before  the  law. 
"The  Brahman  is  born  of  a  woman,  so  is  the  Kan- 
dala.  Can  you  see  any  cause  that  should  make 
the  one  noble  and  the  other  vile?  The  Brahman, 
when  he  dies,  becomes  a  loathsome  object,  as  does 
any  one  of  a  lower  caste  ;  where,  then,  is  the  differ- 
ence?" "My  law  is  a  law  of  grace  for  all."  "As 

*  "If  there  is  one  broad  fact  that  comes  out  from  the  legends  of 
every  kind,  it  is  that  Indian  society  was  most  deeply  corrupt  at  the 
time  when  Buddha  appeared  there."— St.  Hilaire,  p.  95.  To  the  same 
effect,  Koeppen,  I.,  p.  56. 

4 


THE   EFFECT.  _ 

the  four  rivers  which  flow  into  the  Ganges,  lose  their 
names  so  soon  as  they  mingle  their  waters  with  .the 
sacred  stream,  so  those  who  believe  in  Buddha  cease 
to  be  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Vaisyas  and  Sudras." 

"Since  the  doctrine  which  I  proclaim  is  altogether 
pure,  it  makes  no  distinction  between  high  and  low, 
rich  and  poor.  Like  water  it  is,  which  washes 
and  purifies  all  alike.  It  is  like  the  sky,  for  it  has 
room  for  all,  men,  women,  boys,  girls,  rich  and 
poor."  * 

How  revolutionary  it  must  have  been,  in  a  country 
ridden  as  no  country  ever  was  before  or  since,  with 
the  oppressions  of  caste  !  He  was  himself  a  model 
of  all  the  virtues  and  benignities  he  taught,  and 
enforced  every  word  with  such  personal  consecration 
and  love  as  touched  deeply  the  heart. 

The  wave  of  this  influence  was  not  soon  spent. 
For  the  first  time,  so  far  as  any  records  show  us,  the 
soul  of  humanity  was  kindled,  the  missionary  spirit, 


*  "  He  addressed  himself  to  all  classes  ;  nay,  he  addressed  himself 
to  the  poor  and  degraded,  rather  than  to  the  rich  and  the  high." — M. 
Mtiller,  Chips,  II.,  p.  343.  "The  whole  proletary  of  India  you  would 
see  in  the  assemblage  of  our  reformer  ;  Sudras  and  Kandalas,  barbers 
and  scavengers,  bankrupts,  the  imbecile,  forsaken,  aged,  beggars  and 
cripples,  worn-out  courtesans,  outcast  girls,  that  knew  no  couch  but 
the  dung-hill ;  even  thieves  and  highwaymen,  murderers  —  in  a  word, 
all  the  wretched  and  unfortunate,  eagerly  seek  him,  to  gain  through 
him  deliverance  from  their  burdens." — Koeppen,  L,  p.  132. 

5 


5  8  BUDDHA. 

the  desire  to  carry  the  new  word  to  all  nations,  was 
aroused.  As  early  as  the  date  of  the  third  Council, 
say  perhaps  308  years  before  Christ,  we  hear  of 
extended  missionary  enterprises  into  foreign  countries, 
into  Cashmire  on  the  north,  beyond  the  Himalas  to 
Thibet,  and  perhaps  China,  and  into  Ceylon  and 
Farther  India.  Indeed  there  are  accounts  of  some  of 
this  work  done  far  earlier,  but  how  far  they  are  trust- 
worthy it  is  not  possible  now  to  decide.*  The  new 
religion  had  its  poets.  The  soul  was  touched  to 
rhythm,  and  the  fine  thought  found  fine  utterance 
in  the  music  of  song.  This  was  sure  to  come. 
The  annals  are  mostly  vacant,  but  we  find  mention 
made  of  a  lyric  poet,  Parsva,  in  the  reign  of  King 
Kanishka  (a  little  before  the  Christian  era),  who  did 
very  much  to  popularize  Buddhism,  celebrating  it  in 
odes  that  were  presently  in  the  mouths  of  all.  Others 
also  are  named ;  two  laymen,  brothers  in  Magadha, 
whose  hymns  are  still  preserved,  or  profess  to  be,  in 
one  of  the  sacred  collections  (the  Tanjur)  of  Thibet. f 
Fabian,  a  Chinese  pilgrim  in  the  fourth  century,  found 
Buddhism  prevalent  in  the  Cabul  countries  west  of 
the  Indus.  In  the  reign  of  Ming-ti,  emperor  A.  D. 


*  See  the  substance  of  them  in  Wasseljew,  pp.  42-44.     But  see 
also  Koeppen.  I.,  pp.  144,  188. 
f  Wasseljew,  pp.  52,  53. 


THE  EFFECT.  59 

65,  it  gained  public  recognition  as  the  third  among 
the  state  religions  of  China,  and  it  has  maintained  a 
strong  hold  there  to  this  day,  being  professed  in  a 
sort  by  the  lower  classes  of  the  people  at  large.  In 
the  seventh  century  there  were  not  less  than  3,716 
Buddhistic  monasteries  there,  and  at  the  present  time, 
in  Peking  and  its  environs  alone,  there  are  5,000 
temples  and  80,000  monks.  The  number  of  priests 
in  the  empire  is  reported  at  over  1,000,000.  From 
China  it  was  carried  in  the  fifth  century  to  Corea, 
and  in  the  sixth  to  Japan.  Among  the  Tartar  tribes 
it  must  have  been  propagated  at  least  a  century 
or  two  before  our  era.  On  the  west  at  an  early 
day  it  penetrated  into  Persia  proper,  but  was 
repressed  and  driven  back  into  Cabul  by  the 
relentless  power  of  the  Sassanidae.  Then  soon  came 
the  Mohammedan  persecutions,'  which  lasted  for  cen- 
turies, and  extended  over  all  of  Central  Asia,  as  far 
as  the  banks  of  the  Lob  Nor.  In  these  calamities, 
doubtless,  very  many  literary  documents  of  great  value, 
touching  the  religion  and  its  history,  perished.*  Like 
Christianity,  Buddhism  was  first  itself  when  trans- 
planted to  foreign  soil ;  it  achieved  its  great  con- 
quests among  those  of  different  nationality,  blood  and 
civilization,  from  the  people  with  whom  it  had  its  birth. 

*  Wasseljew,  pp.  79,  80.     Also  Koeppen,  II.,  p.  34. 


60  BUDDHA. 

A  son  of  King  Asoka,  Mahinda,  is  said,  with  his 
sister,  to  have  been  sent  to  Ceylon,*  and  a  very  won- 
derful account  of  .the  history  of  the  planting  of  the 
faith  in  that  island  is  contained  in  one  of  the  old 
Singhalese  annals. 

King  Devanampiyatissa  ruled  over  the  island. 
Before  he  ascended  the  throne  he  was  greatly  distin- 
guished for  wisdom  and  piety.  On  the  day  of  his 
coronation  all  Nature  testified  her  rejoicing ;  rich 
metals  and  precious  stones  came  up  of  their  own 
accord  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  spread  them- 
selves upon  the  surface.  Pearls  and  other  treasures, 
buried  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  rose  and  ranged 
themselves  upon  the  shore,  happy  in  the  possession 
of  such  a  prince.  More  marvelous  still,  a  bamboo 
put  forth  three  wonderful  branches,  one  of  silver,  one 
covered  with  the  most  varied  and  beautiful  flowers, 
and  one  graved  with  figures  of  the  rarest  animals  and 
birds.  The  king,  too  modest  to  appropriate  them 
himself,  sent  these  choice  treasures  to  the  great 
Asoka.  His  embassadors  came  back,  loaded  with 
finest  gifts,  and  charged  with  a  message  to  their 


*  Maudgaliputra,  head  of  the  third  Council,  deputed  Mahinda, 
with  his  associates,  commissioning  them  in  these  words:  "Establish 
ye,  in  the  delightful  land  of  Lanka,  the  delightful  religion  of  the 
Vanquisher." — The  Singhalese  Mahavansa,  quoted  by  Koeppen,  I., 
p.  1 88,  Note. 


THE   EFFECT.  6 1 

sovereign:  "I  have  found  refuge  with  Buddha,  the 
Law  and  the  Congregation ;  I  am  dedicated  to  the 
religion  of  the  son  of  the  Sakyas.  Come,  thou  sov- 
ereign of  men,  acknowledge  in  thy  heart  this  supreme 
refuge,  and  commit  to  it  thy  salvation." 

We  do  not  know  that  the  message  received  any 
immediate  regard,  but  erewhile  Mahinda  and  his  sister 
were  sent  as  missionaries  to  the  island.  The  new 
faith  was  accepted.  Devanampiyatissa,  the  Princess 
Annula  and  all  the  court  embraced  it,  and  the  people 
flocked  in  crowds,  to  hear  and  receive.  Mahinda 
became,  as  the  old  chronicler  hath  it,  "the  torchlight 
whereby  the  whole  island  was  illuminated."  Great 
memorial  structures  grew  up,  but  they  lacked  relics, 
and  King  Asoka  was  applied  to,  to  supply  them. 
A  collar-bone  of  Buddha  was  sent,  which  was  received 
and  provided  for  with  all  due  honor. 

But  more  than  all,  a  branch  of  that  sacred  tree, 
the  Bo-tree  at  Bodhimanda,  was  sent,  cut  by  the  hand 
of  the  king,  and  carefully  guarded  by  himself  in 
person,  until  it  was  committed  to  the  ship  that  was 
to  carry  it  to  the  island.  The  most  remarkable 
prodigies  occurred  on  the  way.  The  vessel  cut 
swiftly  the  waves,  and  to  the  distance  of  a  league 
away  the  rough  billows  subsided  to  smooth  sea  before 
it.  Flowers  of  five  different  colors  bloomed  around 
it,  and  music,  the  most  sweet  and  luscious,  filled  the 


62  BUDDHA. 

air.  Innumerable  oblations  were  brought  by  innu- 
merable divinities,  while  the  Nagas  tried  in  vain  to 
steal  away  this  divine  tree.  Sanghamitta,  the  daughter 
of  King  Asoka,  herself  a  high  priestess,  into  whose 
hands  this  noble  branch  was  committed  for  keeping, 
baffled  all  their  wicked  designs  "by  the  power  of  her 
sanctity, " 

Such  was  the  story  of  the  tree  in  its  passage. 
Arrived  at  its  destination,  the  capital  city,  Anuradha- 
pura,  it  is  borne  in  imposing  procession,  to  be  planted 
in  the  garden  of  Mahamega.  Sixteen  princes,  clad 
in  the  most  brilliant  habits,  are  at  hand  to  receive 
it,  but  the  branch,  leaving  their  grasp,  rises  aloft  in 
the  air,  and  stays  there,  glistening  with  a  circle  of 
light,  which  six  luminous  rays  make  about  it.  At 
the  setting  of  the  sun  it  descends  again  and  plants 
itself  without  assistance,  in  the  garden,  where,  for  the 
space  of  eight  days,  a  sheltering  cloud  protects  it, 
watering  it  with  quickening  showers.  Instantly  then 
the  fruits  appear  on  the  tree,  and  the  king  is  thereby 
enabled  to  disseminate  it  over  the  island — this  won- 
derful tree,  Bodhi,  pledge  of  salvation. 

A  faith  supported  by  such  prodigies  ought  to  grow, 
or  perhaps  we  might  better  say  it  had  already  attained 
large  dimensions  that  there  should  have  been  such 
prodigies.  The  hold  which  Buddhism  gained  in 
Ceylon  has  never  been  broken,  and  although  much 


THE  EFFECT.  63 

degenerated  from  the  pure  simplicity  and  transparent 
truth  of  its  founder,  it  still  retains  many  points  of 
singular  attractiveness  and  worth.* 

It  was  effectually  introduced  into  Thibet  in  the 
seventh  century  of  our  era,  although  it  seems  to  have 
been  preached  there  long  time  before,  and  after  various 
fortunes  —  sometimes  encountering  the  bitterest  perse- 
cutions—  it  was  at  length  established  as  the  prevailing 
religion.  Variously  colored  and  mixed,  modified  by 
Sivaism,  which  it  brought  from  India,  and  the  Sham- 
anism which  it  found  on  Mongolian  soil,  grown  now 
to  a  most  rigid  and  narrow  ecclesiasticism,  with  its 
lamaseries,  hierarchy,  pontifical  college  and  Grand 
Lama,  it  still  retains  some  of  the  fine  features  of  its 
parentage,  and  is  reverently  called  by  the  Thibetan 
people  "the  internal  religion. "f 

In  India,  the  land  of  its  birth,  after  various 
fortunes,  having  been  installed  as  the  state  religion, 
by  King  Asoka,  and  sometimes  favored  and  some- 


*  See  here  Hardy's  Eastern  Monachism,  a  book  written  from 
an  orthodox  Christian  standpoint,  by  a  missionary,  and  blind  to  much 
tfcat  ought  to  have  been  seen  and  appreciated  ;  but,  on  the  whole, 
pervaded  by  a  spirit  more  than  usually  intelligent  and  candid. 

f  In  three  cloisters,  in  or  near  Lhassa,  are  at  the  present  time 
30,000  monks. — Koeppen,  II.,  in.  These  are  of  the  yellow  mantle. 
In  the  south  of  Thibet  there  is  another  church,  of  the  Buddhists  of  the 
red  mantle,  with  their  Lama  also,  but  of  their  number,  as  indeed  of 
the  number  of  the  others,  we  are  not  informed. 


64  BUDDHA. 

times  persecuted  by  succeeding  monarchs,  Buddhism 
was  assailed  and  expelled  by  its  old  enemy,  the 
Brahmanical  power.  This  final  expulsion  occurred 
about  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century  of  our  era.* 
"Let  him  who  slays  not  be  slain/'  read  the  decree, 
and  the  disciples  of  the  meek  Gautama  were  mas- 
sacred and  driven  out  by  the  sword,  f  Not  a  single 
Buddhist  to-day,  it  is  said,  is  to  be  found  on  the 
peninsula. 

The  influence  of  Buddhism  upon  the  western  world, 
through  the  intercourse  that,  after  the  conquests  of 
Alexander,  sprung  up  between  West  and  East,  and 
lasted  for  centuries,  was  neither  slight  nor  transient. 


*  Cunningham,  Bhilsa  Topes,  p.  166. 

f  Spence  Hardy  puts  it  in  the  sixth  century  after  Christ,  but  this  is 
certainly  too  early,  for  Chinese  pilgrims  visited  India  in  subsequent 
centuries,  and  found  the  faith  widely  current  there.  "The  prince 
Sudhanvan  gave  orders  to  put  all  the  Buddhists  in  India  to  death." 
Madhava  Acharaya  says :  "  The  king  commanded  his  servants' to  put 
to  death  the  old  men  and  the  children  of  the  Bauddhas,  from  the 
bridge  of  Rama  to  the  snowy  mountain ;  let  him  who  slays  not  be 
slain."  The  fusion  of  three  castes  out  of  the  four,  leaving  the  Brahman 
paramount,  and  alone  in  integrity  of  race,  is  a  proof  of  the  severity  of 
the  strife.  Among  the  millions  of  the  Hindus,  Buddha  has  not  now 
a  single  worshiper.  The  minister  of  the  powerful  Akbar,  in  the  i6th 
century,  could  find  no  one  in  the  wide  dominions  of  his  master  who 
could  give  him  any  explanation  of  the  doctrines  of  Gotama." — Legends 
and  Theories,  pp.  305,  206.  It  would  seem,  however,  from  the  dates 
of  the  Mohammedan  invasions  that  the  time  given  by  Major  Cunning- 
ham above  is  too  late.  More  probably  it  may  be  in  the  ninth  or  tenth 
century. 


THE  EFFECT.  65 

In  exchange  for  some  of  the  elements  of  material 
civilization  which  she  borrowed  thence,  India  gave 
back  to  Rome  advanced  ideas  upon  the  great  prob- 
lems of  life.  The  fine  thought  of  the  philosophers 
of  Alexandria  and  the  Platonic  school  generally,  derived 
much  of  its  stimulus  and  nourishment  from  the  East, 
was  Oriental  speculation  cast  in  Occidental  mold. 
And  sundry  of  the  observances  in  the  Catholic  Church 
appear  to  have  been  derived  from  Buddhistic  source. 
"The  ideas  found  in  the  Inferno  of  Dante  are  many 
of  them  purely  Buddhist. "  *  Josaphat,  who  has  been 
made  a  leading  character  in  the  Roman  martyrology, 
is  Sakya-Muni  transplanted  and  appropriated  by  Rome. 
The  story  was  used  to  illustrate,  as  it  well  did,  the 
trial  and  the  conquest,  amid  great  temptations,  of  a 
sensitive,  saintly  soul.  Marco  Polo  said  of  Sakya, 
"If  he  had  but  been  a  Christian,  he  would  have 
been  of  the  foremost  in  the  sight  of  Heaven." 

Undoubtedly  Buddhism,  as  -we  have  it,  histori- 
cally has  been,  and  is,  a  gross  idolatry,  a  dark, 
blighting  paganism.  It  seems  to  have  fallen  towards 
that  almost  from  the  beginning.  As  had  been  the 
case  with  Brahmanism  before  it,  on  the  one  hand 
airy,  vapid  speculations  arose,  subtle  dialectics,  refining 
and  sublimating,  until  they  abolished  everything, 


*  S.  Beal. 


66  BUDDHA. 

annihilated  all  affirmative  being,  and  left  the  spirit 
in  the  coldness  and  chill  of  mere  negations ;  *  and 
on  the  other  hand  a  gross  sensualism,  that  worshiped 
form  and  circumstance  and  person,  and  made  the 
very  Nirvana  low  and  carnal.  Buddha,  as  the  history 
tells,  turned  the  wheel  of  the  law,  or  taught  publicly 
the  word  of  life ;  the  saints  to-day  perform  their 
devotions  by  turning  with  windlass  huge  wheels 
inscribed  with  mystic  formulas  and  the  precepts  of 
their  prophet.  Buddha  proclaimed  the  not,  rising 
beyond  the  limitations  of  person,  and  feeling  the  utter 

*  It  would  be  of  little  profit  here,  even  could  we  do  it,  to  enter 
into  any  account  of  the  Buddhistic  speculation.  It  was  very  volumi- 
nous, and  any  tolerable  sketch  of  it  would  take  large  space.  There 
were  many  schools  —  sects  and  sub-sects,  beginning  with  Vaibhasrhikas 
and  the  Sautrantikas  (those  who  held  most  by  the  Abhidharma  and  by 
the  Sutras  respectively),  numbering  at  one  time  eighteen  or  twenty. 
Afterwards  all  are  represented  in  the  two  Vehicles,  the  Great  and  the 
Little,  which  for  many  centuries  contended  together  in  debate  upon 
their  respective  doctrines.  And  in  these,  especially  the  Great  Vehicle, 
there  were  various  divisions  or  schools.  All  the  latitudes  and  realms 
of  subtle,  abstract  thought  were  traversed  in  these  speculations,  and 
the  stages  of  the  ancient  Greek  philosophizing,  and  of  the  mediaeval 
scholastic,  were  percurred  on  the  Eastern  soil.  The  mysticism  of  the 
New  Platonists  and  the  idealism  of  Fichte  is  there.  Says  the  Lanka 
Vatara,  a  book  belonging  to  one  school  of  the  Great  Vehicle,  "  What 
seems  external  exists  not  at  all,  only  the  soul  manifests  itself  in  different 
forms."  Again  it  is  said,  "All  worlds  are  but 'the  creation  of  our 
thought."  There  is  also  in  large  measure  the  negation  and  nihilism 
of  the  Sophists,  the  Nominalists,  and  the  skeptics  of  all  ages.  Those 
who  are  curious  in  such  matters  may  find  a  sufficiently  full  account  in 
Wasseljew's  Buddhismus. 


THE  EFFECT.  67 

impossibility  to  define  heaven  or  the  beyond,  dropped 
never  a  hint  describing  it  in  form  ;  he  forbore  to 
utter  any  name  of  God,  perhaps  knew  never  a  thought 
of  personal  immortality,  and  yet  he  was  quickly  him- 
self apotheosized,  paradise  was  built  up  filled  with 
carnal  elements,  and  his  own  name  is  invoked  as 
that  of  a  supreme  deity  in  the  skies,  ready  to  help 
forever.  Such  is  the  story  of  Buddhism  wherever  it 
has  gained  possession  of  multitudes ;  such,  with  slight 
modifications,  will  we  find  it  in  Mongolia,  in  China, 
in  Thibet,  Ceylon  and  Farther  India ;  more  marked 
as  an  idolatry  doubtless  in  the  later  time,  than  it 
was  in  the  early  periods. 

But  there  were  certain  impressions  laid  upon  it 
too  deep  to  be  effaced.  It  never  lost  its  pacific, 
gentle  character,  never,  at  least  in  the  early  centuries, 
raised  the  hand  of  persecution  or  oppression,  although 
it  long  had  at  its  bidding  the  arm  of  civil  power. 
It  carried  all  its  conquests  by  persuasion  and  the 
force  of  character.  It  suffered  wrongs,  sometimes 
great  violence,  at  the  hand  of  its  enemies.  We  hear 
of  wars,  invasions  of  India,  persecutions,  in  which 
many  temples  were  burned  and  multitudes  of  Bhik- 
shus  were  killed.  And  the  Brahmanical  power,  as 
we  have  seen,  at  length  arose  and  put  the  followers 
of  Sakya  to  the  sword.  But  the  same  features  of 
gentleness,  reverent  regard  for  life,  forbearing  to  hurt 


68  BUDDHA. 

the  smallest  creature  that  lives,  distinguish  the  faith 
to  this  day.  "No  religion,  not  even  the  Christian," 
says  Max  Miiller,  "has  exercised  so  powerful  an 
influence  on  the  diminution  of  crime  as  the  old, 
simple  doctrine  of  the  ascetic  of  Kapilavstu."  *  King 
Asoka,  whose  edicts  are  preserved  on  monumental 
columns  and  on  rocks,  enjoins  the  practice  of  the 
most  generous  virtues,  orders  the  construction  of  roads 
and  hospitals,  and  even  abolishes  capital  punishment. 

"The  king,"  he  says,  "beloved  of  the  gods, 
honors  every  form  of  religious  faith ;  but  considers 
no  gift  nor  honor  so  much  as  the  increase  of  the 
substance  of  religion ;  whereof  this  is  the  root  — 
to  reverence  one's  own  faith,  and  never  to  revile  that 
of  others." 

"Alms  and  pious  demonstrations  are  of  no  worth 
compared  with  the  loving-kindness  of  religion.  The 
festival  that  bears  great  fruit  is  the  festival  of  duty." 

"The  king's  purpose  is  to  increase  the  mercy, 
charity,  truth,  kindness  and  piety  of  all  mankind." 

"There  is  no  gift  like  the  gift  of  virtue." 

"Good  is  liberality;  good,  it  is  to  harm  no  living 
creature  ;  good,  to  abstain  from  slander ;  good  is  the 
care  of  one's  parents,  kindness  to  relatives,  children, 
friends,  slaves." 


*  Koeppen  also  speaks  to  the  same  effect  —  I.,  480,  481. 


THE  EFFECT.  69 

' '  There  is  no  higher  duty  than  to  work  for  the 
good  of  the  whole  world." 

Dushtagamim,  a  king  of  Ceylon,  of  the  second 
century  B.  C. ,  is  recorded  in  the  Singhalese  annals 
to  have  established  hospitals,  endowed  monasteries, 
opened  roads  through  his  dominions,  furthered  agri- 
culture, etc.  He  constructed  a  stupendous  dagoba, 
and  the  edict  that  is  quoted  from  him  in  regard  to 
it,  declares  that  no  part  of  that  great  work  should 
be  performed  by  unpaid  labor.* 

Megasthenes,  who  about  300  B.  C,  was  sent 
by  Seleucus  Nicator  to  Palibothra,  to  the  court  of 
King  Kandragupta,  where  he  spent  several  years, 
speaks  of  a  sect  of  philosophers  he  found  there 
opposed  to  the  Brahmans,  the  Sarmanai,  presumably 
the  Sramanas,  as  they  were  called;  i.  e.,  ascetics  who 
subdue  the  senses.  They  live  simply,  he  says,  sub- 
sisting upon  the  alms  that  are  given  them ;  abstain 
from  wine,  and  maintain  most  chaste  celibacy. 

The  manners  of  the  Mongolians  have  been  soft- 
ened, their  characters  very  essentially  ameliorated,  since 
they  ycame  under  the  influence  of  this  faith,  as  all 
travelers  who  have  been  among  them  abundantly 
testify.  Indeed,  the  change  has  amounted  well  nigh 
to  a  transformation,  as  will  appear  by  comparing 

*  See  Johnson's  Oriental  Religions,  pp.  739-741. 


yo  BUDDHA. 

them  since  their  conversion  with  what  they  were 
before.  Murder  and  robbery,  it  is  testified,  in  the 
region  extending  from  the  Great  Wall  to  the  Altai, 
are  as  infrequent  today  as  in  the  civilized  countries 
of  Europe.  These  savage  hordes  were  the  scourge 
and  the  terror  of  Asia.  Some  of  the  tribes  still  retain 
their  old  worships  and  wild  barbarism,  and  show  by 
contrast  what  Buddhism  has  achieved  for  those  of 
the  same  blood  and  natural  qualities.  Of  the  Thi- 
betans, Neumann  says,  "The  savage  traits  of  these 
people,  the  mild,  philanthropic  doctrine  of  the  prince 
Sakya  has  done  much  to  soften,  if  it  has  not  eradi- 
cated." "All  men,"  they  hold,  "are  brothers," 
and  they  seek  to  treat  all  with  the  spirit  of  a  true 
fraternity.  The  Chinese  have  a  proverb  that  runs 
so;  "Religions  are  many,  all  different,  but  reason 
is  one;  we  are  all  brethren/'  —  which,  though  not 
directly  traceable  to  Buddhism,  probably  came  of  that 
inspiration. 

A  like  amelioration  has  been  wrought  upon  the 
Birmese  and  Siamese.  "Previous  to  its  introduction," 
says  Mr.  Low,  "these  nations  must  have  been  savage 
in  the  extreme."  Except  in  occasional  instances  of 
sudden  heat  and  violent  outbreaks  of  the  savage 
passions  —  as  in  the  case  of  war  against  enemies,  in 
which  it  is  said  they  give  loose  to  the  every  revenge  — 
they  are  pacific,  gentle,  tractable,  exceedingly  hospi- 


THE  EFFECT.  7! 

table  to  strangers,  and  most  carefully  considerate  to 
anticipate  their  every  want.  Private  persons  construct 
in  Siam,  at  their  own  expense,  foot-paths  and  bridges, 
and  erect  along  the  streets  and  water-courses  places 
of  shelter  and  lodging-quarters  for  the  wayfarer.  Daily 
the  women  fill  vessels  with  fresh  water  along  the 
road-side,  for  the  traveler,  whenever  he  shall  wish,  to 
quench  his  thirst.  The  same  custom  obtains  also 
in  Ceylon.  Thefts  and  mu-rders  are  comparatively 
unknown,  the  latter  particularly.  In  the  populous 
city  of  Bangkok,  containing  400,000  people,  very  rarely, 
we  are  told,  is  a  broil  or  quarrel  seen,  and  so  infre- 
quently is  murder  committed,  that  sometimes  for  the 
space  of  an  entire  year  there  will  not  be  a  single  case. 

If,  as  in  Japan  and  Siam,  Buddhists  have  once 
arisen  to  put  down  with  strong  arm  of  power  Chris- 
tianity from  their  midst,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
this  was  done  under  the  provocation  of  a  first  wanton 
attack,  and  attempted  extermination  of  their  own  insti- 
tutions and  faith. 

The  testimony  is  abundant  that  the  natural  moral- 
ities are  better  observed,  the  chastities  better  maintained 
in  the  countries  under  the  sway  of  Buddhism  than 
elsewhere  in  the  East.  Tender  care  is  taken  of  the 
sick,  the  aged,  the  helpless.  Reverence  to  parents 
is  made  one  of  the  first  of  duties.  A  sixth  com- 
mandment (the  five  of  universal  obligation  are  given 


72  BUDDHA. 

on   page    86)    imposed    upon    the   laity   in   Thibet   is, 
"Thou  shalt  cherish  thy  father  and  mother." 

"To  honor  father  and  mother  is  better  than  to 
pay  worship  to  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth.'' 

"If  a  child  should  carry  father  and  mother,  one 
upon  each  shoulder,  for  a  hundred  years,  he  would 
then  do  less  for  them  than  they  have  done  for  him." 

These  passages  of  the  law  have  become  proverbs 
with  the  people. 

Bigandet  testifies  that  one  effect  of  Buddhism, 
wherever  it  has  gone  and  exerted  anything  like  a 
decisive  influence,  is  the  amelioration  —  a  very  material 
one  —  of  the  condition  of  woman.  This  is  marked  in 
Siam,  in  Tartary,  Birmah  and  Ceylon.  And  he  ascribes 
it  to  the  fact  that  this  religion  knows  no  distinctions  of 
rank,  except  such  as  are  founded  in  character.*  There 
are  works  written  by  Buddhistic  authors  against  caste, 
and  these  have  been  used  by  Christian  missionaries 
in  their  warfare  against  that  oppression,  f  Polygamy 
is  not  approved,  albeit  Buddhism  sprang  up  and  has 


*Pp.  283,  284.  "It  was  his  (Buddha's)  doctrine  that  it  is  the 
greater  or  less  development  of  the  moral  principle  that  makes  the  essen- 
tial difference  in  the  status  of  men." — Hardy,  Legends,  etc.,  p.  15. 

f  Koeppen,  L,  p.  129.  Here  is  a  sample  of  the  argument : 
"The  foot  of  a  tiger  differs  by  very  distinct  characteristics  from  that  of 
an  elephant,  of  an  elephant  from  that  of  a  man  ;  but  no  one  can  tell 
wherein  the  foot  of  a  Brahman  differs  from  that  of  a  Sudra." 


THE   EFFECT.  73 

grown  among  polygamists.  In  Ceylon  and  Birmah 
it  is  prohibited  ;  monogamy  is  the  rule  here  and  in 
Siam,  though  less  general  in  Thibet  and  Mongolia. 
Polyandry  indeed  prevails  to  some  extent,  as  among 
the  lower  classes  in  Ceylon,  and  particularly  in  Thi- 
bet, but  this  —  at  any  rate  in  Thibet  —  is  much  older 
than  the  introduction  of  Buddhism  there,  and  is 
opposed  and  forbidden  by  Lamaism.  * 

Mrs.  Leonowens,  the  English  governess  at  the 
king's  court  in  Siam,  found  the  condition,  as  a  whole, 
less  favorable  than  the  statements  above,  drawn  from 
residents  there,  would  indicate ;  nevertheless  she 
instances  some  features  that  are  not  a  little  remark- 
able, and  go  to  show  something  of  the  quality 
of  the  religion  held  there.  In  the  temple  service 
that  she  attended,  the  invocation  is  this  :  "  O,  Thou 
Eternal  One,  the  Perfection  of  Time,  Thou  immu- 
table Essence  of  [  in]  all  Change,  Thou  most  excellent 
radiance  of  Mercy,  Thou  infinite  Compassion,  Thou 
Pity,  Thou  Charity!"  Then  followed  an  exhortation 
to  charity  and  kindliness,  fervent,  fine,  such,  she  says, 
"as  might  be  wisely  imitated  by  the  most  orthodox 
of  Christian  priests."  And  that  these  are  not  wholly 


*  So,  at  least,  it  is  said  in  Koeppen,  I. ,  p.  477,  Note,  though  the 
statements,  as  given  on  opposite  pages,  in  regard  to  prohibition  or 
permission,  are  conflicting. 

6 


74  BUDDHA. 

empty  words,  is  evidenced  by  the  acts  of  generous 
beneficence,  done  at  some  times,  particularly  on 
Buddha's  birthday,  to  the  suffering  and  the  poor. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  scenes  she  ever  wit- 
nessed, she  tells  us,  was  on  the  occasion  of  the 

* 
death  of  a  Buddhist  priest,   the  High  Priest  of    Siam. 

It  was  an  exhibition  of  complete  trust  in  the  Supreme, 
a  self-forgetfulness,  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  others 
to  the  very  end.  This  was  the  invocation  chanted  by 
the  assembled  priests  : 

First  Voice  —  "Thou  Excellence  or  Perfection!  I  take 
refuge  in  Thee." 

All — "Thou  who  art  named  Poot-thoo  !  —  either  God, 
Buddha  or  Mercy  —  I  take  refuge  in  Thee." 

First  Voice — "Thou  Holy  One!  I  take  refuge  in 
Thee  ! " 

All —  "  I  take  refuge  in  Thee  !  " 

"The  absorbing  rapture  of  that  look,  which  seemed 
to  overtake  the  invisible,  was  almost  too  holy  to  gaze 
upon.  Riches,  station,  honors,  "  kindred  —  he  had 
resigned  them  all  more  than  half  a  century  since, 
in  his  love  for  the  poor,  and  his  longing  after  truth. 
He  was  going  to  his  clear  eternal  calm.  With  a 
smile  of  perfect  peace,  he  said,  'To  your  Majesty 
I  commend  the  poor,  and  this  that  remains  of  me 
I  give  to  be  burned.'  And  that,  his  last  gift,  was 
indeed  his  all."* 

*  English  Governess  at  the  Siamese  Court,  pp.  189,  201,  202. 


THE   EFFECT.  75 

The  late  king  of  Siam  mainiained  entire  religious 
freedom  for  all  his  subjects,  protected  Christian 
churches  against  interference,  and  sought  to  purify 
Buddhism  from  superstition  and  exalt  it  to  a  pure 
catholic  religion.  The  present  king  has  abolished 
slavery  thoughout  his  dominions,  has  broken,  or  is 
breaking  up  the  mendicancy  and  idleness  of  the  priests, 
sending  them  out  to  earn  their  living  by  some  honest 
industry,  and  has  initiated  various  important  public 
improvements  besides.  The  lesson  of  equal  rights 
and  equal  liberties,  we  are  told,  he  had  lived  and 
learned  long  ago,  in  childhood.  Free  churches  of 
Buddhists  who  reject  all  that  is  miraculous,  and  adhere 
only  to  the  moral  teachings,  have  existed  in  that 
country  nearly  forty  years.*  And  so  we  find  freedom 
from  a  spirit  of  narrowness,  intolerance,  the  conceit 
of  exclusive  claim,  among  the  Buddhists  to  a  remark- 
able, an  unprecedented  degree.  They  have  seen  far 
enough  to  discover  that  all  religions  are  approxima- 
tions, and  the  highest  is  but  partial.  Hence  they 
have  not  infrequently  sought  to  supplement  their  own 
from  another.  Said  a  Singhalese  chief,  who  put  his 
son  in  a  Christian  school,  to  the  astonished  mission- 
ary, "I  have  a  like  veneration  for  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  as  for  those  of  Buddhism.  I  add  your 

*  Sir  John  Bowring,  quoted  by  Koeppen,  I.,  468. 


7  6  BUDDHA. 

religion  to  my  own,  in  order  to  steady  it,  for  I 
consider  Christianity  a  very  safe  outrigger  to  Bud- 
dhism." Kublai-Khan,  the  great  Tartar  monarch,  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  Father  Ruysbrock  tells  us, 
hearing  all  the  advocates  plead  for  their  respective 
faiths  ac  his  court,  declared  that  as  the  different 
ringers  are  given  to  the  one  hand,  so  are  the  relig- 
ions. The  Regent  of  Lhassa  declared  perpetually  to 
the  Catholic  missionaries  Hue  and  Gabet,  as  they 
tell  us,  "Your  religion  is  like  our  own,  the  truths 
are  the  same ;  we  differ  only  in  the  explanation. 
Amid  all  that  you  have  seen  and  heard  in  Tartary 
and  Thibet  you  must  have  found  much  to  condemn  ; 
but  you  are  to  remember  that  the  many  errors  and 
superstitions  that  you  may  have  observed,  have  been 
introduced  by  ignorant  Lamas,  but  are  rejected  by 
intelligent  Buddhists."  "He  admitted  between  us 
and  himself  only  two  points  where  there  was  dis- 
agreement—  the  origin  of  the  world  and  transmi- 
gration of  souls."  "Let  us  examine  them  both 
together,"  said  he  to  them  again,  "with  care  and 
sincerity ;  if  yours  is  the  best  we  will  accept  it ;  how 
could  we  refuse  you  ?  If,  on  the  other  hand,  ours 
is  best,  I  doubt  not  you  will  be  alike  reasonable, 
and  follow  that." 

"Popular   education,"   says    Bastian,    "has   reached 
a  considerable  degree  of  advancement  in  all  Buddhist 


THE   EFFECT.  77 

countries.  Every  town,  almost  every  secluded  village, 
has  its  monastery  occupied  by  monks,  who,  either 
with  or  without  pay,  give  instruction  to  children, 
affording  to  all  the  means  of  acquiring  elemental 
knowledge ;  so  that  it  is  rare  to  find  persons  who 
can  neither  read  nor  write." 

In  the  Chinese  Fo  worship,  the  Liturgy,  there  is 
recorded  a  vow  of  the  Bodhisattva  Kwan  Yin  —  the 
great  Compassionate  Heart  or  Mercy  —  a  high  act  of 
consecration  to  the  service  of  humanity.  "Never 
will  I  seek  or  receive  private  individual  salvation  — 
never  enter  final  peace  alone,  but  forever  and  every- 
where will  I  live  and  strive-  for  the  universal^  redemp- 
tion of  every  creature  throughout  all  worlds.  Until 
all  are  delivered,  never  will  I  leave  the  world  of  sin, 
sorrow  and  struggle,  but  will  remain  where  I  am." 
The  worshipers  are  to  seek  to  be  filled  and  quick- 
ened with  the  same  spirit,  to  pray  and  to  toil  for 
the  salvation  of  all  men.  * '  I  pray  for  all  men,  that 
they  may  attain  perfection  of  wisdom,  —  may  I  quickly 
deliver  all  sentient  creatures !  —  may  all  emerge  from 
the  wheel  of  transmigration  and  be  saved."*  In  what 
Christian  land  shall  we  easily  find  a  like  generous 
vow  of  consecration  ? 


*  Baal's  Cateita,  pp.  405,  406,  409.  Also  see  address  by  Rev. 
W.  H.  Charming,  on  the  Religions  of  Chitia,  as  given  in  the  annual 
report  of  the  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  1870. 


78  BUDDHA. 

The  following  is  given  as  a"  Mongolian  prayer  : 

"  O  them  in  whom  all  creatures  trust,  Buddha,  perfected 
amidst  countless  revolutions  of  worlds,  compassionate  to- 
wards all,  and  their  eternal  salvation,  bend  down  into  this 
our  sphere,  with  all  thy  society  of  perfected  ones.  Thou 
law  of  all  creatures,  brighter  than  the  sun,  in  faith  we 
humble  ourselves  before  thee.  Thou  who  completest  all 
pilgrimage,  who  dwellest  in  the  world  of  rest,  before  whom 
all  is  but  transient,  .descend  by  thy  almighty  power,  and 
bless  us." 

These  show  traces  of  a  parentage  that  has  never 
been  effaced ;  they  carry  back  to  a  home  first  in 
some  broad,  catholic  soul. 


III. 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  THOUGHT. 

IT  seems  possible,  in  a  measure,  to  penetrate  the 
myth  and  fiction,  to  read  through  the  partial  or 
awry  representation  of  him,  and  learn  what  this  man 
was,  judge  of  his  quality  and  relations,  not  to  Indi- 
ans or  Mongolians  simply,  but  to  mankind.  The 
data  for  forming  such  judgment  are  tolerably  fair. 
It  does  not  appear  that  he  ever  wrote  anything. 
The  Sutras  or  discourses  were  put  to  record  from 
memory,  some  time  after  his  death  *  —  some  of  them 


*  The  Canon  is  said  to  have  been  settled  in  the  first  Council,  held 
a  few  days  after  the  death  of  Buddha,  but  this  is  doubtful.  It  is  not 
probable  that  anything  that  we  have,  was  put  to  record,  or,  at 
least,  formally  passed  upon,  earlier  than  the  third  Council,  held  in 
the  time  of  King  Asoka,  and  perhaps  a  good  portion  is  not  of  so 
early  a  date  as  that.  According  to  the  Singhalese  tradition  the  Canon 
was  first  written  down  considerably  later,  say  nearly  100  B.  C.,  and 
according  to  the  Thibetan,  only  at  the  time  of  King  Kanishka,  about 
the  commencement  of  our  era.  Still  there  are  two  or  three  small 
books,  »as  we  shall  see,  that  probably  are  genuinely  authentic  utter- 
ances of  the  Master,  bearing  an  internal  character  that  gives  them 
decided  superiority  over  most  of  the  others. 


8o  BUDDHA. 

perhaps  not  even  so  good  as  that  —  but  the  features 
laid  upon  his  institution,  and  current  in  the  beliefs 
of  his  followers,  are  distinct  enough  to  give  a  meas- 
urably clear  and  just  view  of  the  man. 

He  had  doubtless,  under  one  view,  an  ancestry. 
He  was  born  of  a  thoughtful  race,  a  people  calm, 
contained,  meditative,  readily  given  to  withdrawal  from 
the  outer,  dwelling  in  solitudes,  sitting  rapt  in  most 
absorbing  and  subtle  contemplation,  such  as  the  world 
has  never  seen  before  or  since.  Life,  a  perpetual 
change,  a  dream,  an  illusion  ;  the  seen  the  unreal, 
and  the  real,  if  anywhere,  in  the  unseen;  exist- 
ence a  road  of  births,  no  end  to  them,  no  limit 
to  the  limitations,  transmigration  of  the  soul  forever, 
—  this  was  a  part  of  the  prevailing  faith,  religion  of 
saint  and  Brahman.  Into  such  beliefs  Gautama  was 
born,  and  they  must  have  made  at  the  beginning  a 
deep  impression  upon  his  susceptible  nature,  one 
that  perhaps  he  never  to  the  end  outgrew.  He  was 
conceived  in  their  atmosphere,  and  they  entered  the 
fibre  of  his  nerves,  his  soul  was  charged  with  them. 
"There  never  was,"  says  M.  Miiller,  "a  nation 
believing  so  firmly  in  another  world,  and  so  little 
concerned  about  this. "  * 


*  "The  divinely  wise  rest,   never  more  to  wander,  in  Brahma. 
When  the  wise  have  attained  at  man  (self,  soul)  then  are  they  satisfied  in 


THE   MAN  AND    THE   THOUGHT.  8 1 

But  -though  we  can  see  something  of  the  ante- 
cedents, and  find  a  genealogy,  we  cannot  from  them 
account  for  him.  History  will  not  explain  him. 
He  came  a  Melchisedek,  without  father  or  mother, 
born  from  the  bosom  of  the  eternities.  In  that  soul 
dwelt  the  infinite,  deep  sense  of  the  everlasting, 
conscious  of  its  origin  and  home,  and  intense  yearn- 
ing to  return  and  rest  there.  He  was  of  very 
thoughtful  turn,  in  his  early  boyhood,  as  we  saw, 
withdrawing  himself  from  companions,  that  he  might 
alone  contemplate,  retiring  into  groves  and  solitudes, 
that  he  might  hold  communion  with  unseen.  Ecsta- 
tic hours  seem  to  have  visited  him  ;  he  recalled 
with  utmost  fondness  in  after  years  the  vision  he  had 
seen  in  the  gardens  of  Lumbini.  The  spectacles  of 
life  wrought  their  deep  impression  on  him.  This  tran- 
sience, never  an  instant  of  rest,  this  ssvift  maturing  and 
decay  of  the  physical  being,  life  but  a  confiscation. 


knowledge,  their  being  is  complete,  their  desires  are  past  away,  they 
are  at  repose,  attaining  to  the  ail-pervading  Nature,  they  go  them- 
selves into  the  supreme  All,  sinking  their  soul  therein.  As  rivers 
flowing  to  ocean  disappear  in  it,  lose  their  name  and  form,  so  merges 
the  wise,  emancipated  from  name  and  form,  into  the  supreme  eternal 
Spirit.  Who  knows  the  supreme  Brahma,  is  himself  Brahma  ,  he 
lays  aside  all  sorrow  and  sin  ;  freed  from  the  bonds  of  corporeity,  he 
is  immortal.  Who  knows  the  One,  is  delivered  from  birth  into  other 
worlds,  and  from  death."— From  the  Upanishads,  as  given  by  Wuttke, 
Gcschichte  des  ffeidfjit/ntttis,  II.,  p.  399. 


82  BUDDHA. 

a  flash  in  the  air,  a  moment  of  speech,  and  the 
long  eternity  of  silence  behind  it,  before  it ;  the 
earth  the  grave  of  all,  and  it  in  turn  destined  to 
its  grave  ;  no  stability,  no  permanence  anywhere 
—  why,  what  an  illusion,  what  a  void  it  is!  Why 
must  it  be  that  all  flesh  decays  and  melts  away, 
the  bloom  of  youth,  the  vigor  of  age  but  a  rose- 
blossom,  open  and  gone  ere  we  can  see  it  well  ? 
Alas,  alas,  what  has  man  to  do  with  pleasure;  he  is 
the  dream  of  a  dream,  the  sport  of  shadows.  This 
thought  of  the  transience,  this  spectacle  of  decay  and 
swift  vanishing  away  seems  to  have  filled  and  haunted 
his  mind.  He  could  not  solve  the  mystery  of  this 
fate  ;  he  became  indifferent,  renunciant,  dwelling  only 
on  the  death,  uncaring  for  aught  in  life  or  the  world 
of  the  seen. 

It  was,  as  we  know,  a  mistake,  but  was  it  a  strange 
or  unnatural  mistake,  considering  the  antecedents  and 
surroundings,  considering  his  temperament,  the  venous 
blood  so  predominant,  and  considering,  withal,  the 
deep  sobriety  of  his  nature,  that  intense  longing  for 
substance  and  stay?  There  are  minds  absorbed  in 
the  sense,  all  engrossed  with  appearance  and  show, 
fleeting  illusion.  The  multitudes  in  all  ages  are 
prevailingly  such.  There  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
those,  few  in  any  age,  who  dissolve  and  annihilate 
the  seen,  resting  only  in  unchanging  and  unseen. 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  83 

Time  with  them  is  a  shadow,  earth  and  life  but  a 
mirage,  an  illusion ;  the  objects  the  multitudes  long 
for  and  eagerly  grasp,  are  not  the  boon  ;  the  Nirvana 
is  other,  is  beyond. 

Such  a  mind,  and  that  preeminently,  was  Buddha. 
Early  he  bethought  him  of  the  problem  set  for  work- 
ing, early  he  resolved  that  it  should  be  done.  The 
deliverance  should  be  wrought,  the  world  of  perma- 
nence, though  it  should  come  by  renunciation,  destruc- 
tion of  all  worlds,  should  be  found.  He  dedicated 
himself  to  that  sublime  task,  and  how  he  started, 
did  and  sacrificed,  we  somewhat  know.  In  his 
childhood  years,  as  would  seem,  there  came  to  him 
the  elemental  riddle  of  being,  the  contradiction  and 
towering  mystery  of  existence,  this  fact  of  individu- 
ation,  the  dropping  of  the  soul,  spark  of  infinity,  in 
the  world  of  time.  From  this  individuation,  this 
limiting  within  the  bounds  of  person,  diremption  of 
the  world  away  from  me  —  so  that  there  is  a  some- 
what not  myself,  not  mine,  or  rather  there  is  a 
higher,  in  which  me,  and  not  me,  are  not  yet 
dissolved,  absorbed,  sublimated  —  from  this  comes 
our  want  and  thirst,  the  perpetual  reaching  forth 
and  struggle. 

We  have  a  little  of  the  form  in  which  he  put  it. 
"Here  is  lack,  sorrow,"  said  he,  "perpetual  through 
life ;  it  comes  of  our  affections ;  these  affections  from 


84  BUDDHA. 

our  individuation,*  our  limitations,  from  the  fact  that 
there  is  an  outside,  something  not  ourselves,  and  that 
we  do  not  possess.  We  must  close  the  chasm, 
extinguish  the  want,  bridge  the  abyss,  so  that  there 
shall  be  no  without  to  this  within,  no  lack  of  its 
possession,  ere  we  can  arrive  at  the  supreme  felicity.'7 
These  are  in  substance,  as  we  take  it,  his  ''sublime 
verities "  on  which  so  much  disquisition  has  been 
had.  They  occupied,  it  is  said,  almost  the  entire 
time  of  the  first  Council,  held  immediately  after  his 
death,  and  they  have  certainly  been  the  theme  of 
much  speculation  since. 

1.  There  is  pain,   sorrow  in  the  world. 

2.  This  comes  of  the  desires,  of  lack  and  of  sin. 

3.  This  pain  may  cease  by  Nirvana. 

4.  There  is  a  way  that  leads  thither. 

This,  too  (the  way),  he  puts  under  eight  heads 
or  parts.  In  substance  they  are  the  doctrine  of 
perfect  poise,  of  ethereal  recognition  and  steady  dwell- 
ing therein.  "  Right  view/'  he  says,  —  seeing  all  things 
as  they  are,  nothing  less,  nothing  more.  This  properly 


*  la  the  "Heart  Sutra"  in  Chinese,  it  is  said,  "The  nature  of 
man  and  his  reason  were  originally  one  and  undivided  ;  simply  by 
reason  of  covetous  desire  his  true  nature  was  perverted,  and  the  six 
modes  of  migrational  existence,  and  the  four  kinds  of  birth  were  intro- 
duced into  the  world." — Quoted  by  Beal,  p.  281. 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  85 

covers  the  whole  ground  ;  the  other  points  are  but 
more  specific  designations  or  applications.  Among 
them  are  "right,  language,"  or  perfect  truthfulness, — 
veracity,  abhorring  all  falsehood  or  pretense;  "right 
ends;"  "right  methods" — nothing  unlawful  in  the 
pursuit;  "right  remembrance"  —  reading  aright  and 
treasuring  for  life  and  strength  all  the  past,  communing 
with  its  reality;  and  "right  meditation" — considering 
well,  keeping  the  height,  remaining  apart  from  all 
illusion  and  intoxication.  These  truths  he  saw  in 
vision  under  the  tree  at  Bodhimanda,  and  they  enrap- 
tured his  soul ;  he  felt  that  he  could  well  say  that 
he  was  now  alive,  he  saw,  he  wras  wide  awake. 

On  the  pedestal  of  most  of  the  statues  of  the  saint 
to-day  is  inscribed  this  passage:  "It  is  Tathagata  (he 
who  has  traveled  the  same  route  as  the  preceding 
Buddhas),  who  has  explained  the  cause  of  all  effects 
proceeding  from  anterior  cause ;  it  is  the  great  Sra1- 
mana  likewise  who  has  explained  the  cessation  of  these 
effects."  Conjoined  with  this  is  a  very  sacred  sentence 
in  the  eyes  of  all  Buddhists,  found  by  Csoma  de 
Koros  frequently  repeated  in  the  canonical  books  of 
Thibet,  and  recurring  often  in  the  Singhalese  Sutras, 
regarded  as  a  kind  of  resume  of  the  whole  doctrine  : 
"To  abstain  from  all  sin,  to  practice  constantly  all 
virtue,  and  hold  perfect  mastery  of  one's  self — this 
was  the  inculcation  of  the  Awakened. 


86  BUDDHA. 

The  ethical  code  corresponds  to  this  spirit.  There 
are  five  great  commandments  enjoined  upon  all  : 

1.  Thou  shalt  not  kill. 

2.  Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

3.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

4.  Thou  shalt  not  speak  untruth. 

5.  Thou  shalt  not  take  any  intoxicating  drink. * 

Additional  and  more  special  commands  were  laid 
upon  those  who  took  the  vows  and  embraced  the 
monastic  life ;  commands  touching  diet,  sleeping, 
dress,  social  intercourse,  retirement  to  forests,  ceme- 


*  "  This  law  is  broken  by  even  letting  fall  upon  the  tongue  only 
such  a  drop  of  intoxicating  liquor  as  would  hang  at  the  end  of  a  blade 
of  Thaman  grass,  if  it  is  known  to  be  intoxicating. — Buddhagoshd 's 
Parables ',  Rogers'  Translation. 

Somewhat  differently  is  the  code  given  by  Mrs.  Leonowens,  as 
held  by  the  Buddhists  in  Siam.  Every  one  of  the  commandments 
would  seem  to  be  for  universal  application.  They  are  as  follows  : 
(The  first  five,  it  will  be  seen,  are  substantially  identical  with  those 
above). 

1.  "  From  the  meanest  insect,  up  to  man,  thou  shalt  kill  no  ani- 
mal whatsoever. 

2.  Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

3.  Thou  shalt  not  violate  the  wife  of  another,  nor  his  concubine. 

4.  Thou  shalt  speak  no  word  that  is  false. 

5.  Thou  shalt  not  drink  wine,  nor  anything  that  may  intoxicate. 

6.  Thou  shalt  avoid  all  anger,  hatred  and  bitter  language. 

7.  Thou  shalt  not  indulge  in  idle  and  vain  talk. 

8.  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  goods. 

9.  Thou  shalt  not  harbor  envy,  nor  pride,  nor  revenge,  nor  malice, 
nor  the  desire  of  thy  neighbor's  death  or  misfortune. 

10.  Thou  shalt  not  follow  the  doctrines  of  false  gods." 

— English  Governess,  etc.,  pp.  185,  186. 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  87 

teries,  etc.  They  were  to  wear  only  the  poorest  of 
garments,  which  they  must  make  with  their  own 
hands,  having  always  the  yellow  vesture  or  cloak, 
symbol  "of  their  profession;  to  live  solely  upon  alms: 
never  to  receive  silver  or  gold  ;  never  to  sleep  under 
roofs,  except  in  the  inclement  portions  of  the  year ; 
alvrays  to  take  plain  food,  and  never  eat  —  more  than 
very  slightly,  if  at  all  —  after  mid-day. 

There  are  six  virtues  that  are  for  all  men,  and 
though  they  may  not  lead  absolutely  to  Nirvana, 
they  will  put  all  on  the  road  thither.  Charity, 
purity,  patience,  courage,  contemplation  and  know- 
ledge. In  practicing  these  "we  quit  the  dark  shores 
of  existence,  where  is  ignorance."  Buddha  came  for 
self-sacrifice,  by  surrendering  himself,  to  save  the 
world.  All  who  follow  him  must  tread  in  these 
footprints.  The  charity  and  love  must  extinguish 
from  the  heart  all  egoism,  so  fill  with  spirit  of  devo- 
tion the  possessor,  that  he  surrenders  himself  utterly, 
forgetting  everything  personal,  his  own  existence  £ven, 
to  save  others.  The  highest  sobriety  and  integrity 
in  living  are  enjoined.  All  evil  speaking,  any  gross- 
ness  of  language  or  empty,  frivolous  word  is  strictly 
forbidden.  The  saint  must  seek  not  farther  to  divide 
and  embroil,  but  to  reconcile  those  who  are  apart. 
Harmony  is  his  aim,  bringing  people  together.  Words 
sweet,  affectionate,  grateful,  reaching  the  heart ;  never 


SO  BUDDHA. 

a  syllable  spoken  lightly  or  at  random,  all  with  a 
purpose,  and  to  the  purpose. 

One  of  the  virtues  specially  emphasized  was  humil- 
ity. "I  do  not  say  to  my  disciples,"  declared 
Buddha  to  King  Prasenajit,  his  friend,  when  requested 
to  perform  some  miracles  to  confound  his  enemies, 
"Go,  and  before  the  Brahmans  and  householders 
work  by  aid  of  supernatural  power  miracles  greater 
than  man  can  do,  but  instructing  them  in  the  law 
I  say,  Live,  O  saints,  hiding  your  good  works  and 
showing  your  sins."* 

So  one  of  the  old  legends  reports  that  a  poor 
man,  with  a  single  handful  of  flowers,  heaped  the 
alms-bowl  of  Buddha,  which  the  rich,  with  fen  thou- 
sand bushels,  could  not  fill.  And  another  says  that 
upon  a  time  when  very  many  lamps  were  kindled 
in  honor  of  Buddha,  one  only  —  that  brought  by  a 
very  poor  woman  —  burned  through  the  night,  while 
the  others,  presented  by  kings,  ministers,  etc.,  were 
spent  and  went  out.f 

A  prominent  doctrine  with  the  Buddhists  has 
throughout  been  Karma,  doctrine  of  retribution, 


*  Burnouf,  Inlrod.  p.  170. 

f  Koeppen,  I.,  131,  quoting  from  a  Chinese  work,  Foe  Koue  A7, 
translated  by  Remusat,  and  from  a  Thibetan,  Le  Sage  et  Le  Fou, 
translated  by  Foucaux. 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  89 

•-•» 

present  state  and  fortune  retributive  upon  past,  and 
future  the  sanction  of  all  the  present.  Every  act 
has  endless  result,  takes  hold  constantly  upon  the 
forever.  What  we  are  and  now  experience  is  the 
fruit  of  what  we  have  been,  and  what  we  shall  be 
depends  upon  what  we  do,  or  refrain  from  doing 
now.  The  present  existence  of  each,  his  condition, 
is  the  written  record,  the  cumulative  result  of  his  past. 

"Each  house  displays  the  kind  and  worth 
Of  the  desires  I  loved  before." 

So  the  Buddhist  draws  lessons  of  wisdom,  keeps 
unbroken  patience  and  poise  in  all  his  experience  ; 
every  calamity,  every  indignity  or  wrong  offered  him 
speaks  of  some  desert,  reminds  him  of  some  behavior 
in  the  past,  ages  back  perhaps,  whereby  he  has  laid 
himself  open  to  this  and  made  it  inevitable.  Great 
sacredness  invests  the  present,  for  if  he  is  ever  to 
attain  Buddhahood,  approach  Nirvana,  he  must  live 
very  superiorly  every  moment  here.  So  liberty  and 
fate  coexist,  interpenetrate ;  fate  behind  us,  around  us, 
present  here,  liberty  before  us,  and  fate  sealing  every 
act  with  its  eternal  sanctions. 

The  doctrine  of  transmigration  is  a  very  old  one, 
and  has  doubtless  deep  truth  in  nature.  The  soul 
is  traveling  the  road  of  birth,  and  is  on  the  endless 
ascent.  It  has  passed  through  many  lives,  it  has 

7 


90  BUDDHA. 

many  more  in  store.  Modern  science  tells  us  in 
more  prosaic  dialect  the  same  thing  which  ancient 
Greek  and  Oriental  fancy  had  said,  in  its  fine  way, 
that  the  soul  journeys  from  monad  to  God.  Bud- 
dha had  percurred  the  existences.  In  one  account 
he  is  said  to  have  gone  through  550  lives ;  he  had 
been  bird,  stag,  elephant,  etc.,  before  he  took  on 
incarnation  as  son  of  Suddhodana.  Others  say  he 
had  been  through  all  the  existences  of  earth,  sea  and 
air,  had  traversed  every  condition  of  all  the  ages. 
On  the  point  of  becoming  Buddha,  the  Awakened, 
he  had  seen  in  recollection  the  innumerable  births 
and  lives  he  had  passed,  covering  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  kotis  (a  koti,  10,000,000  years).  He 
was  in  consequence  of  this  experience  in  condition 
to  enter  into  the  sympathies  of  all  creatures,  and  all 
worlds,  for  whose  redemption  he  must  devote  himself 
and  labor. 

His  biographers  remark  with  astonishment  that  a 
man  who  seems  so  thoroughly  to  renounce  the  world 
and  all  the  relations  of  life,  should  have  laid  the 
emphasis  he  did  on  the  domestic  and  social  virtues. 
But  indeed  the  account  he  makes  of  the  ethical 
element,  the  strong  insistence  he  lays  upon  high 
character,  should  have  told  any  good  observer  as 
much,  convinced  him  there  indubitably  was  life  and 
healthfulness  in  this  faith.  The  duties  of  the  house- 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  91 

hold,  the  family  relations,  we  are  informed,  he  put  in 
the  first  rank.*  Personally  he  showed  himself  ever 
full  of  respect  and  tenderness  towards  his  mother, 
although  he  had  never  seen  her.  The  legends  repre- 
sent him  as  taking  great  interest  in  her  behalf, 
visiting  that  portion  of  the  skies  where  she  dwells, 
to  instruct  her  in  the  law  and  to  save  her.  In  one 
of  the  Sutras  he  is  reported  as  speaking  thus  : 

"  Brahma,  O  saints,  where  is  he?  In  the  families 
where  father  and  mother  are  perfectly  honored,  ven- 
erated, served.  For,  according  to  the  Law,  father 
and  mother  are  for  the  child  in  the  family,  Brahma 
himself.  The  teacher,  O  saints  —  he  is  in  the  fam- 
ilies where  father  and  mother  are  perfectly  honored, 
venerated,  served.  For,  according  to  the  Law,  father 
and  mother  are  for  the  child  teacher  himself. 

"The  altar  of  sacrifice,!  the  shrine  of  worship  —  it 
is  in  the  families  where  father  and  mother  are  perfectly 
honored,  venerated,  served.  Why  this  ?  Because, 
according  to  the  Law,  father  and  mother  are  for  the 
child  altar  and  shrine  itself."  J  If  this  be  an  incon- 


*St.  Hilaire,  p.  91. 

f  Literally,  "the  fire  of  sacrifice,"  a  fine  allusion  to  the  Brahman  - 
ical  worship.  The  sacred  fire  was  kindled  upon  the  hearth,  and  upon 
it  was  offered  the  clarified  butter  to  the  god. —  See  Burnouf 's  Introd. , 

p.  21. 

\  Burnouf,  pp.  133,  134. 


92  BUDDHA. 

sistency  in   Buddhism,  it  is,   as   Barthelemy   St,   Hilaire 
says,   one  that  does  it  honor. 

It  is  a  great  thing,  he  declares,  that  parents  do 
for  their  children,  in  rearing  them,  giving  them  food, 
protection,  acquaintance,  so  far  as  possible  for  them 
to  afford,  with  the  sights,  the  facts  of  the  world  about 
them.  ' '  Whereby  can  they  repay  this  care  ?  By 
doing  what  they  may  to  enrich  them  spiritually,  by 
establishing  them  in  the  perfectness  of  the  faith,  if 
they  have  it  not ;  by  bringing  them  to  the  perfectness 
of  morality,  if  they  have  bad  morals ;  of  liberality, 
if  they  are  the  creatures  of  avarice ;  of  knowledge, 
if  they  are  in  ignorance." 

So  in  the  rules  laid  down  for  the  priests,  we  find 
the  most  minute  directions,  even  in  regard  to  diet, 
the  manner  of  eating,  etc.  The  priest  is  always  to 
approach  and  partake  of  his  food  in  a  poised,  con- 
siderate, thoughtful  spirit,  eating  possessedly,  never 
with  the  least  eagerness  or  greed,  "no  mouthful 
larger  than  a  pigeon's  egg,"  and  each  to  be  thor- 
oughly masticated  and  disposed  of  before  another  is 
taken.  At  the  present  time  the  requirement  upon 
the  priest  in  Ceylon  is  that  he  shall  rise  each 
morning  before  day,  and  the  first  duty  that  calls  him 
is  care  of  his  person,  cleansing  his  teeth,  etc.  The 
duty  of  neatness  in  all  respects,  both  with  regard  to 
the  body  itself  and  the  clothing  worn,  is  sedulously 


THE  MAN  AND   THE    THOUGHT.  93 

enjoined,  and  well  observed.  Only  with  the  clean 
body  and  the  clean  garments,  they  say,  can  be  the 
clean  mind.  "When  the  lamp,  the  oil  or  the  wick 
is  not  free  from  dirt,  the  light  that  is  given  is  not 
clear ;  in  like  manner,  when  the  mind  is  unclean, 
the  truths  necessary  to  be  known  cannot  be  discov- 
ered, and  the  rites  of  asceticism  cannot  be  properly 
exercised.  But  when  the  body  is  clean,  the  mind 
partakes  of  the  same  purity ;  as  the  lamp,  oil  and 
wick,  when  free  from  dirt,  give  a  clear  light."  * 

The  breadth  and  elevation  of  the  man  are  indi- 
cated in  the  fact  that  he  relied  solely  to  the  end  upon 
the  moral  element,  seeking  no  conquests  but  by 
persuasion.  Related,  as  he  was,  to  courts,  finding 
favor  with  kings,  he  might,  in  the  midst  of  the 
conflicts  which  came,  have  invoked  the  arm  of  civil 
power,  and  there  was  beyond  doubt  temptation  that 
way.  His  enemies,  the  Brahrrians,  plotted  against 
his  life,  and  it  would  have  been  so  natural  to  resist 
by  force  and  throttle  the  conspiracies,  but  the  thought 
seems  never  to  have  been  entertained  for  a  moment. 
The  weapons  were  not  carnal,  but  spiritual.  Then 
and  to  this  hour,  so  far  as  we  can  definitely  learn, 
Buddhism  was  the  exception,  sole  in  all  history.  It 


*  Hardy's  Eastern  Monachism,  p.  113,  quoted  from  the  Wisudhi 
Margga  Sanne. 


94  BUDDHA. 

stands  as  the  only  great  historic  religion  that  has  not, 
upon  opportunity  taken  the  sword  to  put  down  its 
enemies.  That  a  faith  so  born  and  conditioned 
as  this  was,  and  overtaken  at  length  by  such  cruel 
fortune  in  the  land  of  its  birth,  should  never  have 
soiled  its  hands  with  violence,  never  have  lifted  the 
arm  in  resistance  to  persecution  and  extermination, 
deserves  to  be  remembered  and  recorded  to  its  ever- 
lasting honor. 

Buddha's  method  was  not  negative,  but  affirmative. 
He  sought  the  desired  change  not  so  much  by  direct 
attack,  criticising  and  condemning,  as  by  holding  up 
the  standard,  presenting  its  beauty,  and  attempting  to 
incite  and  ravish  all  in  the  ideal  presence.  Every 
one  of  the  abuses  of  the  time  he  sought  to  over- 
throw by  the  affirmative.  He  would  destroy  by 
supplanting,  overrunning  and  choking  out  by  the 
better.  His  way  was  to  overcome  evil  with  good, 
hatred  with  love ;  he  knew  no  power  for  transform- 
ation so  fine  as  this ;  nay,  he  took  account  of  no 
other. 

The  records  preserved  to  us  in  the  legendary  tales 
of  the  saints  show  to  us  a  courage  and  fortitude 
such  as  belong  only  to  earnest  times,  found  with  a 
people  who  inly  believe  and  are  dedicated  to  an  idea. 

Purna  was  the  son  of  an  emancipated  slave  woman, 
set  free  by  her  master,  at  her  own  earnest  solicit- 


THE  MAN  AND   THE    THOUGHT.-  95 

ation.       He   was    reared    in    the    paternal    household, 
and  distinguished  himself  early  by  his  intelligence  and 
sleepless  activity.      He  acquired   in   trade  great  wealth, 
and    enriched    his   family   also.       He    went   frequently 
upon    long    voyages    for    trade,    and    became   erewhile 
the  head  of  a  band  of  merchants  who  carried  on  this 
foreign    commerce.       Upon    one    of    these    voyages   he 
had    as    companions    some    merchants    from    Sravasti, 
who    night    and    morning   engaged    in    the    reading  of 
sacred    hymns,   invocations    ' '  which   bear   to    the  other 
shore,"    and    sacred    texts  —  words     from     the    lips    of 
Buddha.       He   was    struck    by   these    novel    utterances, 
and    soon    as    he    came    to    Sravasti    he    repaired    to 
Bhagavat,   and  embraced  the  new  faith  that  so  touched 
his    heart.        Dead    now   to    the   world,    he    wished    to 
take    up    his    abode   henceforth    with   a    fierce,    savage 
tribe,    whose     ferocities    would     have     frightened     any 
courage    less    great    than    his.       The    teacher    inclines 
to  dissuade  him  from  his  purpose. 

"The  men  of  Sronaparanta  are  passionate,  cruel, 
violent.  When  they  shall  give  thee  harsh,  threaten- 
ing words,  when  they  shall  be  in  rage  against  thee, 
what  wilt  thou  think  ?  " 

"If  the  men  of  Sronaparanta  do  this,"  was  the 
reply,  "if  they  become  mad  and  assail  me,  I  will  say, 
Good  men,  fine  men,  they  are  of  Sronaparanta,  who 
do  not  strike  me  with  the  hand,  nor  pelt  with  stones." 


96  BUDDHA. 

"But  if  they  strike  and  pelt  thee,  what  wilt  thou 
think  ? " 

"I  shall  think  they  are  good  and  fine  that  they 
do  not  take  my  life." 

"But  if  they  deprive  thee  of  life,  what  wilt  thou?" 

"I  shall  still  think  they  are  good  and  fine,  in 
that  they  free  me  with  so  little  pain  from  this  body 
full  of  filth." 

"It  is  well,  Puma ;  thou  mayest,  with  that  per- 
fection of  patience  which  thou  hast  attained,  fix  thine 
abode  in  the  country  of  the  Sronaparantakas.  Go, 
then,  O  Purna,  thyself  delivered,  deliver;  consoled,  con- 
sole; having  reached  the  other  shore,  attained  complete 
Nirvana,  conduct  others  thither."*  The  legend  adds 
that  Purna  went  to  this  redoubtable  country,  and  by 
his  noble  spirit  of  patience  and  of  love,  he  softened 
and  subdued  the  savage  people,  teaching  them  the 
Law  and  the  methods  of  deliverance. 

Another  legend  gives  us  an  account  of  Kunala, 
with  the  beautiful  eyes.  He  was  the  son  of  King 
Asoka.  Queen  Rishya  Rakshita,  ravished  with  the 
beauty  of  the  youth,  attempted,  after  the  manner  of 
Potiphar's  wife,  to  seduce  him.  He  repelled  her 
advances  with  scorn  and  rebuke,  and  the  queen 
resolved  upon  vengeance.  Sent  by  his  father  to  a 

*  Burnouf,  Introd.  pp.  252-254.    St.  Hilaire,  Bouddha,  pp.  96,  97, 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  97 

distant  province  of  the  empire  to  subdue  a  revolted 
city,  he  was  working  with  all  success,  bringing  back 
the  disaffected,  and  winning  the  love  of  all,  when 
there  came  a  mandate,  under  the  king's  seal,  order- 
ing that  both  his  eyes  be  torn  out.  The  queen 
had  in  consideration  of  some  signal  service  done  the 
king,  in  way  of  subduing  a  most  troublesome  and 
loathsome  disease,  obtained  possession  of  the  supreme 
power  for  a  short  space,  and  had  this  opportunity  to 
gratify  her  malice  against  the  prince.  It  was  hard 
to  find  an  executioner  for  an  office  so  inhuman,  not 
a  Kandala  even  consenting  to  serve.  A  deformed 
leper  was  at  length  found  to  undertake  it.  Kunala 
submitted  himself  resignedly,  for,  he  said,  the  wise 
teachers  who  had  instructed  him,  had  well  taught  the 
perishable  character  of  all  earthly  things,  and  the  eyes 
themselves  had  done  him  this  service,  that  they  had 
shown  him  that  nothing  abides. 

One  of  the  eyes  was  torn  out,  and  at  his  request 
placed  in  his  hand.  The  crowd  shrieked  with  horror. 
Kunala,  handling  the  eye,  exclaimed,  "Wherefore 
seest  thou  no  more,  as  thou  hast  been  wont,  vile 
globe  of  flesh  ?  How  self-deceived  and  pitiable  they 
are,  the  insensate,  who  fasten  to  thee,  saying,  '  This 
is  myself. ' "  The  second  eye  was  wrested  out  like 
the  first,  and  Kunala,  who  had  lost  the  eyes  of 
sense,  had  opened  within  him  the  eyes  of  the  soul. 


98  BUDDHA. 

"The  eye  of  flesh,"  he  said,  "has  just  been  taken 
away,  but  I  have  acquired  eyes  more  perfect,  fine 
and  pure,  eyes  of  wisdom.  Cast  off  by  the  king,  I 
am  become  son  of  the  great  king  of  the  Law,  whose 
child  I  am  called.  Deprived  of  earthly  sovereignty, 
which  brings  with  it  so  many  troubles  and  sorrows, 
I  have  gained  sovereignty  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
soul,  where  trouble  and  sorrow  are  taken  away." 

The  prince,  the  story  proceeds,  wandered  from 
place  to  place,  led  by  his  young  wife,  who  chanted 
in  the  ears  of  those  she  met,  his  misfortunes  and  his 
consolations.  He  arrived  at  length  at  the  palace  of 
his  father,  who  on  learning  the  cause  of  his  affliction, 
resolved  to  punish  the  queen  with  death.  Kunala 
interceded  for  her,  and  saved  her ;  took  upon  him- 
self alone  all  responsibility  for  his  misfortune,  which 
he  said  had  doubtless  come  by  reason  of  some  fault 
committed  in  previous  existence.* 

Another  legend  runs  on  this  wise  :  Vasavadatta 
was  a  courtesan  at  Mathura,  very  famous  for  her 
fascinations.  Her  servant,  in  buying  her  perfumes, 
etc.,  was  wont  to  deal  with  a  young  merchant  named 
Upagupta.  "My  child,"  said  she,  "it  seems  that 
this  young  man  delights  you  very  much,  since  you 
always  purchase  of  him."  "My  master's  daughter," 

*  Burnouf,  p.  403-413. 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  99 

replied  the  servant,  "  Upagupta  is  very  beautiful,  very 
gifted  and  sweet,  and  he  spends  his  life  in  observ- 
ance of  the  Law."  The  words  awakened  in  Vasa- 
vadatta a  passionate  desire  for  Upagupta,  and  she  ere 
long  sent  out  her  servant  to  say,  "I  mean  to  come 
and  find  you;  I  desire  to  have  love  with  you." 
Upagupta  responded,  "The  time  is  not  yet  for  me 
to  see  you."  She  thought  his  refusal  was  on  account 
of  lack  of  money  to  pay  her  price,  and  sent  again 
and  said,  ' '  I  ask  of  you  not  a  single  karshapana,  I 
only  wish  to  be  with  you."  Upagupta  returned  the 
same  response  as  before. 

Some  time  after,  Vasavadatta  assassinated  one  of 
her  lovers,  that  she  might  surrender  herself  without 
obstruction  from  his  jealousy,  to  a  rich  merchant  that 
sought  her.  Her  crime  became  known,  and  the 
king  of  Mathura  ordered  that,  as  a  punishment,  her 
hands,  feet,  ears  and  nose  should  be  cut  off,  and 
she,  mutilated  thus,  be  abandoned  in  the  cemetery. 
Upon  hearing  of  this,  Upagupta  said,  "When  she  went 
about  covered  with  fine  ornaments,  richest  jewels,  it 
was  not  well  that  one  who  seeks  enfranchisement 
and  escape  from  the  law  of  birth  should  see  her. 
But  now  that,  mutilated  by  the  sword,  she  has  come 
to  the  end  of  her  pride  and  her  joys,  it  is  fitting 
to  visit  her."  Vasavadatta  saw  him  approaching, 
and  covering  up  and  concealing  as  much  as  she 


100  BUDDHA. 

could  her  unsightly  person  from  view,  she  accosts 
him  :  ' '  Son  of  my  master,  when  my  body  was  sweet 
as  the  flower  of  the  lotus,  adorned  with  all  wealth 
and  splendor  of  attire,  whatever  could  attract  and  intox- 
icate, I  could  not,  alas,  draw  you  to  my  side.  But 
now  you  come  to  view  a  form  whose  sight  no  one 
can  endure,  abandoned  of  pleasure  and  of  beauty, 
inspiring  only  aversion,  begrimed  with  blood  and 
filth."  "My  sister/'  he  responded,  "formerly!  did 
not  come  to  you,  drawn,  as  I  might  have  been,  by 
sensuous  love ;  but  now  I  come  that  I  may  know 
•and  feel  the  true  character  of  the  pitiful  objects  in 
which  people  take  delight."  Then,  the  relation  tells 
us,  he  comforted  Vasavadatta,  instructing  her  in  the 
Law,  bringing  peace  to  the  soul  of  the  unfortunate. 
She  died,  making  profession  of  faith  in  Buddha, 
"to  have  resurrection  erewhile  in  the  realm  of  the 
gods.''*  "For  the  sake  of  a  celestial  nymph,"  said 
Rathapala,  the  Brahman,  when  remonstrated  with  by , 
his  wife  for  having  left  all,  "have  I  abandoned  the 
world. ' ' 

Ananda,  most  beloved  disciple,  cousin  to  Buddha, 
weary  and  very  thirsty  one  day  from  a  long  journey, 
approached  a  well,  where  he  saw  a  young  Matangi 
girl  drawing,  and  asked  her  to  give  him  to  drink. 

*  St.  Hilaire,  pp.  100-102. 


THE  MAN  AND   THE    THOUGHT.  IOI 

The  maiden,  fearing  to  pollute  him  by  her  touch, 
reminded  him  of  her  caste  (she  was  of  the  Kandalas, 
the  lowest,  the  outcast) ;  and  that  it  was  unlawful 
for  her  to  come  near  a  saint.  ' '  I  asked  thee,  my 
sister,  neither  of  thy  caste  nor  of  thy  family,  but  only 
for  water,"  was^the  reply.  In  like  spirit  is  the  reply 
of  a  Buddhist  saint  in  recent  time  who  had  come 
under  the  displeasure  of  a  king  in  Ceylon,  for  having 
preached  to  the  miserable  and  despised  caste  of 
Rhodias.  "Religion,"  he  responded,  " should  be  the 
common  boon  of  all." 

Here  we  are  tempted  to  introduce  the  legend  of 
Kisagotami.  It  is  in  Buddhagosha  s  Parables,  and 
has  been  admirably  reproduced  by  Max  Miiller,  in 
his  lecture  on  Buddhist  Nihilism. 

Kisagotami  bore  a  son.  When  the  boy  was  able 
to  walk  by  himself,  he  died.  The  young  mother, 
in  her  love  for  it,  bore  the  corpse  about,  from  house 
to  house,  seeking  some  one  that  should  heal  it.  She 
was  recommended  to  apply  to  Buddha,  who,  she  was 
assured,  had  some  medicine  that  would  help.  She 
applied  to  the  saint,  and  was  told  that  he  required 
as  a  condition  a  handful  of  mustard  seed,  mustard 
seed  obtained  from  a  house  where  no  son,  husband, 
parent  or  slave  has  died.  She  sought  from  house 
to  house,  still  carrying  the  dead  body  of  her  son, 
but  everywhere  in  vain.  People  said  to  her,  "The 


102  BUDDHA. 

living  are  few,  but  the  dead  are  "many."  She  began 
at  length  to  think,  "This  is  a  heavy  task  that  I 
am  engaged  in  ;  I  am  not  the  only  one  whose  son 
is  dead.  In  all  the  Savatthi  country,  everywhere 
children  are  dying;  parents  are  dying."  Casting 
away  the  dead  body  of  her  child  in  a  forest,  she 
repaired  to  Buddha  and  reported  the  result  of  her 
search.  Buddha  said,  "You  thought  that  you  alone 
had  lost  a  son ;  the  law  of  death  is  that  among 
all  living  creatures,  there  is  no  permanence."  When 
he  had  finished  preaching  the  Law,  Kisagotami  was 
established  in  the  reward  of  a  noviciate. 

Some  time  afterwards,  as  she  was  engaged  in  the 
performance  of  some  religious  duties,  noticing  the 
lights  in  the  houses,  now  shining,  now  extinguished, 
she  reflected  with  herself,  "My  state  is  like  these 
lamps."  Buddha,  who  was  not  far  distant,  sent  now 
his  sacred  appearance  to  her,  which  said,  just  as  if 
he  himself  were  preaching,  "All  living  beings  re- 
semble the  flame  of  these  lamps  —  one  moment 
lighted,  the  next  extinguished  ;  those  only  who  have 
arrived  at  Nirvana  "are  at  rest."  Kisagotami  hearing 
this/  we  are  told,  "reached  the  stage  of  a  saint  pos- 
sessed of  intuitive  knowledge." 

f  The  thing  is  so  beautifully  told  in  a  little  poem, 
lately  written  by  Mr.  Chad  wick  (Rev.  John  W. ),  that 
we  append  that  here. 


THE  MAN  AND   THE   THOUGHT.  103 

Kisagotami  saw  her  first  child's  face  ; 

She  saw  him  grow  in  knowledge  and  in  grace, 

But  it  was  only  for  a  little  space. 

Kisagotami  saw  him  lying  dead  ; 

Against  her  heart  she  pressed  his  curly  head, 

And  forth  into  the  neighbors'  houses  sped. 

"Something  to  heal  my  darling's  hurt,"  she  cried. 
"Girl,  thou  art  mad,"  was  all  that  each  replied. 
But  one:   "Thy  cure  with  Buddha  doth  abide." 

Still  holding  the  dead  child  against  her  heart, 

She  found  the  prophet  and  made  known  her  smart : 

"  Buddha,  canst  thou  cure  him  with  thy  wondrous  art?" 

"  A  grain  of  mustard  seed,"  the  sage  replied, 
"Found  where  none  old  or  young  has  ever  died, 
Will  cure  the  pain  you  carry  in  your  side." 

Kisagotami  wandered  forth  again, 

And  in  the  homes  of  many  hundred  men 

She  sought  the  seed  where  death  had  never  been. 

'Twas  all  in  vain.      Then  in  a  lonely  wood 
Her  child  with  leaves  she  buried  as  she  could, 
And  once  again  in  Buddha's  presence  stood. 

"Daughter,"  he  said,  "hast  found  the  magic  seed?" 
And  she  :   "  I  find  that  every  heart  doth  bleed, 
That  every  house,  of  death  hath  taken  heed." 

Then  Buddha  said:    "This  knowledge  is  thy  cure. 
Thy  sorrow,  soon  or  late,  for  all  is  sure  ; 
Therefore,  my  child,  be  patient  and  endure." 

In  the  Daily  Manual  for  the  Shaman,  in  Chinese, 
we  have  an  inculcation  of  observances,  which  shows 
that,  originally  at  least,  there  was  recognition  of  the 


104  BUDDHA. 

grand  symbolism  that  runs  through  all  life,  and  an 
earnest  effort  to  lift  the  spirit  to  communion  on  that 
exalted  plane.  Every  act  was  to  be  made  symbolic 
and  sacramental,  the  eating  and  the  drinking,  the 
washing,  putting  on  of  garments,  etc.,  had  meaning, 
signified  far  more  than  the  sense.  Life  itself  must 
be  made  aspiration  and  a  prayer,  vision  and  a  psalm. 
On  awaking  in  the  morning,  let  the  Shaman 
recite  this  Gatha  : 

"  On  first  awaking  from  my  sleep, 
I  ought  to  pray  that  every  breathing  thing 
May  wake  to  saving  wisdom,  vast 
As  the  wide  and  boundless  universe." 

On    hearing   the    convent   bell  : 
"  Oh  !   may  the  music  of  this  bell  extend  throughout  the 

mystic  world, 
And,  heard  beyond  the  iron  walls  and  gloomy  glens  of 

earth, 

Produce  in  all  a  perfect  rest,  and  quiet  every  care, 
And  guide  each  living"  soul  to  lose  itself  in  Mind  Su- 
preme." 

On    rising   out   of  bed  : 
"  On  putting  down  my  foot  and  standing  up, 

Oh  !   let  me  pray  that  every  living  soul 

May  gain  complete  release  of  mind  and  self, 
•     And  so,  in  perfect  Rest,  stand  up  unmoved  !" 
"  From  earliest  dawn  till  setting  sun, 

Each  living  soul  might  tend  to  self-advance, 

Reflecting  thus  :  '  My  foot  firm  planted  on  the  earth, 

Should  make  me  think,  am  I 

Advancing  on  my  road  to  Heaven  ?'  " 


THE  MAN  AND    THE    THOUGHT.  105 

On    putting   on    the    clothes  : 

"  On  binding  on  the  sash,  I  pray 
That  every  living  soul  may  closely  bind 
Each  virtuous  principle  around  himself, 
And  never  loosen  it  or  let  it  go." 

On    washing    the   face  : 

"As  thus  I  wash  my  face,  I  pray 
That  every  living  soul  may  gain 
Religious  knowledge,  which  admits 
Of  no  defilement,  through  eternity." 

On    entering   within    the    sacred    precincts  : 
41  Beholding  the  figure  of  Buddha, 
I  pray  that  every  living  thing, 
Acquiring  sight  without  defect, 
May  gaze  upon  the  form  of  'all  the  Buddhas.'  " 
[z.  e.,  enjoy  "beatific  vision."]  * 

There  is  a  trace  of  childish  ceremonialism  here 
(and  we  should  see  the  more  if  we  followed  this 
Manual  out  in  all  its  details),  which  easily  grows* 
to  superstition  and  a  juggle,  but  the  thought  lying 
at  the  bottom  is  very  fine,  and  provided  the  recog- 
nition could  be  kept  sweet  and  fresh,  untainted  with; 
formalism,  free  of  any.  set  observance,  spontaneous,, 
living,  nothing  could  be  more  healthful  and  beauti- 
ful. The  dangers  of  asceticism  and  cant,  of  other- 
worldliness,  are  about  as  formidable  as  those  of 
absorption  and  degradation  in  this  world.  When 

*  Real's  Catena,  pp.  240-243. 
8 


106  BUDDHA. 

we  have  eyes  fully  open,  we  shall  see  all  washing 
baptismal,  nay,  every  contact,  every  experience  puri- 
fying and  quickening  ;  sunlight,  air,  scenery,  faces, 
conversation  —  sacred  elements  of  healing  and  strength 
for  the  soul.  Then  that  which  is  in  part  only 
shall  be  done  away,  and  the  sacraments  of  the 
church  be  superseded,  fall  obsolete  in  the  larger, 
comprehending  sacraments  of  life.  The  open  eye, 
too,  will  see  the  incarnations,  and  commune  in  the 
visible,  perpetually  with  invisible. 


The  Sutras  or  discourses  ascribed  to  Buddha,  are 
of  uncertain  time  and  authorship,  but  nevertheless 
contain  declarations  not  a  little  remarkable,  and  not 
unworthy  to  be  attributed  to  the  master.  Like 
Jesus,  he  uses  parables. 

In  the  " Lotus  of  the  good  Law"  he  gives  his 
view  of  the  method  which  the  wise  teacher  and  great 
Nature  herself  employs  to  convey  truth  to  man,  and 
to  arouse  and  incite  him  from  his  torpor. 

An  old  man,  father  of  a  family,  finds,  as  he 
returns  home  from  abroad,  his  house  on  fire.  The 
children  are  sleeping,  totally  unconscious  of  the  danger, 
the  sure  death  that  is  upon  them.  He  calls  to  them, 
in  vain  ;  they  see  not  the  fire,  and  will  not  believe 
they  are  in  any  danger.  He  promises  them  fine  toys  ; 


THE  MAN  AND   THE    THOUGHT.  107 

above  all,  three  different  kinds  of  carriages,  to  amuse 
and  delight.  They  leave  the  house,  and  once  safe, 
he  gives  them  not  the  three  —  not  the  carriages  at 
all,  —  but  a  chariot,  splendid  beyond  description. 
"Has  the  father  told  them  a  lie?  No,  doubtless,  but 
has  fulfilled  more  than  his  word.  So  Tathagata, 
pitying  the  frivolity  of  men,  who  before  the  impend- 
ing sorrows  and  calamities,  are  sporting  and  pursuing 
their  pleasures,  in  accommodation  to  their  weakness, 
promises  them,  in  order  to  break  the  chains  of  their 
slavery,  three  'vehicles  of  deliverance,'  or,  so  many 
several  objects  of  incitement  and  desire,  to  win  them. 
Taken,  as  the  children  in  the  burning  house,  with 
the  prize  offered,  they  leave  their  attachment  to  the 
worlds,  and  Tathagata  gives  them  but  one  conveyance, 
the  method  of  reaching  perfect  Nirvana." 

Upon  the  hearing  of  this  parable,  it  is  said,  four 
of  the  disciples  who  were  present,  responded  with  an- 
other, in  which  they  compared  the  race  of  man  much 
to  a  prodigal,  who,  leaving  the  house  of  a  rich  and 
generous  father,  wandered  over  the  world,  and  at 
length  came  back  all  unconsciously  to  the  old  home. 
He  had  lost  the  remembrance  of  his  father,  but  by- 
and-by,  after  many  and  severe  experiences,  he  comes 
to  know  him  again,  embraces,  obeys  him,  and  enters 
upon  his  lost  possession. 

Bhagavat   gave   other   parables;    this,    for   one.       A 


108  BUDDHA. 

man,  blind  from  birth,  denied  that  there  were  colors, 
or  sun,  or  stars,  or  beauty  or  deformity,  or  beholders 
for  them.  Against  all  persuasion  he  resisted  the 
belief,  until  a  certain  skillful  physician  gave  him  sight. 
He  was  in  transports  of  ecstasy,  acknowledging  his 
blindness  and  ignorance  hitherto,  and  exclaiming  that 
now  he  saw  arid  knew  all.  But  the  wise  Rishis, 
observing  in  him  a  blindness  still,  which  was  more 
harmful  than  the  other,  sought  to  purge  him  of  his 
conceit.  "There  are  worlds  far  beyond  the  reach 
of  thy  present  organs.  Sitting  in  the  house,  thou 
canst  not  see  through  the  walls,  the  thoughts  of  thy 
fellows  thou  canst  not  read,  thine  own  begetting,  thy 
conception  and  birth  thou  canst  not  recall.  How 
sayest  thou,  'I  know  all?'  Remember  that  clearness 
is  obscurity,  and  the  obscurities  shall  be  seen  clear." 
Ashamed  for  his  presumption  and  conceit,  he  com- 
mitted himself  for  instruction  in  the  Law  to  the 
Rishis,  and  the  eyes  of  his  soul  were  opened,  as 
those  of  sense  had  lately  been  by  the  physician. 

Such  are  the  hints  richly  scattered  in  these  dis- 
courses, of  the  ethereal  ideas,  the  truths  of  the  upper 
kingdom. 


IV. 

SENTENCES   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

AVIONG  so  many  words  afloat  ascribed  to  the  saint, 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  what  are  authentically  his, 
but  there  is  one  portion  of  the  Buddhistic  Canon,  a 
little  book  called  the  Dhammapadam,  or  Footprints  of 
the  Law,  whose  sentences  are  considered  with  great 
probability  to  be  from  his  lips.  It  was  found  in 
Ceylon  not  many  years  since,  written  in  the  Pali 
language  *  (the  Pali  was  the  popular  language  of 
Magadha),  and  was  published,  with  Latin  translation, 
by  Doctor  Fausboll,  at  Copenhagen,  in  1855.  Por- 
tions of  it  were  also  rendered  into  English  by  D.  J. 
Gogerly,  a  missionary  (in  the  Ceylon  Friend,  1840,), 


*  The  Buddhist  scriptures  seem  to  have  been  written  —  the  main 
portions  of  them  at  least  —  originally  both  in  Sanscrit  (which  in  the 
time  of  Buddha  and  probably  one  or  two  hundred  years  before  him 
had  ceased  to  be  a  spoken  language)  and  in  Pali.  The  originals  of 
the  texts  which  are  held  by  the  Thibetans  and  Chinese  are  nearly  all 
in  .the  former,  the  originals  in  possession  of  the  Singhalese,  Birmese, 
etc.,  are  in  the  latter.  Consult  Burnouf,  Introd.  pp.  15,  16  ;  Koeppen, 
I.,  p.  186. 


110  BUDDHA. 

and  the  whole  has  recently  appeared  in  English,  from 
the  accomplished  pen  of  Prof.  Max  Miiller.*  The 
inculcations  in  that  book  are  of  the  noblest ;  there 
is  trace  of  the  morbid  element,  of  disparagement  and 
renunciation,  such  as  one  finds  in  all  Buddhism,  but 
there  are  exalted  views  of  duty,  ethical  precepts  that 
fall  not  below  the  New  Testament  standard.  We 
give  here  some  of  them  as  samples,  only  adding  that 
those  who  wish  to  find  more  must  refer  to  the  little 
volume  itself.  The  rendering  is  taken  mostly  from 
Fausboll  or  Max  Miiller,  in  a  few  instances,  from 
Gogerly. 

1.  Mind  is  the  root  ;   actions  proceed  from  the  mind. 
If  any  one  speak  or  act  from  a  corrupt  mind,  suffering 
will  follow,  as  the  wheel  follows  the  step  of  the  ox  that  is 
drawing. 

2.  Mind  is  the  root,  etc.     If  any  one  speak  or  act  with 
an  elevated  pure  mind,  then  joy  follows  like  an  unwith- 
drawing  shadow. 

3.  "  He  insulted  me,  assailed  me,  beat  me,  despoiled 
me," — cherishing  these  things  in  the  spirit,  ill  feeling  is  not 
allayed. 

4.  "He  insulted  me,  assailed  me,"  etc., —  by  refusing  to 
harbor  remembrance  of  this  in  the  spirit,  ill  feeling  is  al- 
layed. 


f  Published  by  Trilbner  &  Co.,  with  Buddha  go  s  ha1  s  Parables, 
London,  1869,  and  reprinted  since  by  Scribner  &  Co.,  in  this  country, 
with  Prof.  Miiller's  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Religion,  New  York, 
1872. 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  ill 

5.  For  hatred  never  ceases  by  hatred,  but  by  love  ;  this 
is  the  everlasting  law. 

6.  Persons  do  not  reflect,  we  shall  speedily  die.     If  any 
do  thus  reflect,  their  quarrels  speedily  terminate. 

7.  Whoso  lives,  regarding  the  sensuous  delights,  put- 
ting no  restraint  upon  inclination,  knowing  not  moderation 
in  eating,  indolent  and  without  force, —  Mara,  temptation, 
shall  easily  overcome  him,  as  the  wind  the  slightly  rooted 
tree. 

8.  Whoso  lives,  not   regarding  the  sensuous  delights, 
restraining  inclination,  knowing  to  be  moderate  in  eating, 
faithful,  strong,  —  temptation  will  be  powerless  against  him, 
as  the  wind  against  the  rocky  mountain. 

10.  Who  casts  aside  his  appetites,  who  keeps  armed 
with  the  virtues,  well  endowed  with  temperance  and  in- 
tegrity—  he  indeed  is  worthy  of  the  yellow  garment. 

11.  Who  deem  the  non-substantial  substance,  and  the 
substantial   without    substance, —  they   shall   never    attain 
reality,  being  full  of  vain  desires. 

12.  But  those  who  hold  substance  for  substance,  and 
unsubstantial  for  unsubstantial,  they  attain  the  real,  being 
filled  with  true  desires. 

13.  As  the  rain  breaks  through  an  ill-thatched  roof,  so 
passion  invades  the  thought  destitute  of  reflection. 

15.  The  evil  doer  mourns  in  this  world,  and  he  shall 
mourn  in  the  next  ;   in  both  worlds  has  he  sorrow.      He 
grieves,  he  is  tormented,  seeing  the  ill  of  his  deed. 

16.  The  virtuous  man   rejoices  in   this  world,  and  he 
will  rejoice  in  the  next;   in  both  worlds  has  he  joy.     He 
rejoices,  he  exults,  seeing  the  purity  of  his  deed. 

19.  A  man  slothful,  saying  many  good  things  but  not 
doing  them,  is  like  a  herdsman,  counting  the  kine  of  others, 
but  owning  none. 

21.  Watchfulness  is  the  path  of  immortality,  slothful- 


112  BUDDHA. 

ness  the  way  of  death.  The  watchful  die  not ;  the  slothful 
are  as  already  dead. 

23.  These  wise  people,  meditative,  steady,  always  pos- 
sessed of  strong  powers,  attain  to  Nirvana,  the  highest 
felicity. 

26.  Foolish,  senseless  men  follow  sloth.  The  wise  man 
keeps  watchfulness  as  his  highest  treasure. 

29.  Alert  among  the  sluggish,  wide  awake  among  the 
last  asleep,  the  wise  man  advances  like  a  racer  leaving  be- 
hind the  hack. 

31.  A  Bhikshu  (mendicant)  who  rejoices  in  watchful- 
ness and  fears  sloth,  moves  about  like  fire,  burning  all  his 
fetters  small  and  large. 

42.  Whatever  a  hater  may  do  to  a  hater,  or  an  enemy 
to  an  enemy, —  a  wrongly  directed  mind  will  do  us  greater 
mischief. 

43.  Not  a  mother,  not  a  father  will  do  so  much,  nor 
any   other    relative; — a    well    directed   mind   will   do   us 
greater  service. 

49.  As  the  bee  collects  nectar  and  departs  without  in- 
juring the  beauty  or  the  odor  of  the  flower,  so  the  sage 
sojourns  among  men  ;  he  views  their  ways,  and  learns  wis- 
dom from  their  folly. 

54.  55.  56  (condensed).  The  fragrance  of  the  flower,  or 
of  sandal  wood,  or  of  a  bottle  of  Tagara  oil  is  sweet  but 
delicate  ;  easily  arrested  by  the  winds,  it  is  carried  whither 
they  will.  But  the  fragrance  of  the  good  far  sweeter,  re- 
gardless of  winds,  breathes  over  all  lands,  and  exhales  to 
the  throne  ot  the  gods.* 

58,  59.  As  the  lily,  growing  from  a  heap  of  manure 
accidentally  cast  upon  the  highway,  delights  the  soul  with 
the  delicacy  of  its  fragrance,  so  the  wise,  the  disciples  ot 

*So  one  of  the  Upanishads  has  it:  "As  the  fragrance  of  a  blos- 
soming tree  spreads  far,  so  the  fragrance  of  a  pure  action." 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  113 

the  all-perfect  Buddha,  shine  amongst  the  foolish,  and  are 
grateful  to  the  gods. 

64.  If  through  life  the  foolish  man  sits  beside  the  wise, 
he  will  not  taste  the  law,  as  the  ladle  tastes  not  the  soup. 

65.  If  a  discerning  man  for  one  moment  only  sits  beside 
the  wise,  he  will  quickly  taste  the  law,  as  the  tongue  tastes 
the  soup. 

71.  An  evil  deed  does  not  turn  suddenly  like  milk  ; 
smouldering,  it  follows  the  fool,  like  fire  covered  by  ashes. 

80.  Well-makers  lead  the  water  (wherever  they  like)  ; 
fletchers  bend  the  arrow ;  carpenters  bend  a  log  of  wood  ; 
wise  people  fashion  themselves. 

81.  As   the  solid  rock  is  not  stirred  by  the  wind,  so 
neither  in  reproach  nor  in  praise  is  the  wise  man  moved 
from  his  poise. 

82.  Wise  people,  hearing  the  law,  become  serene,  like 
a  deep,  smooth,  still  lake. 

85.  Few  are  there  among  men  who  attain  to  the  other 
shore  ;  most  only  run  up  and  down  this. 

89.  Those  whose  mind  is  well  grounded  in  the  elements 
of  knowledge,  who  have  given  up  all  attachments  and 
rejoice  without  clinging  to  any  thing,  whose  frailties  have 
been  conquered  and  who  are  full  of  light ; — they  are  free 
(even)  in  this  world. 

92.  He  who  has  no  riches  lives'  on  authorized  food, 
communes  with  the  Void,  the  Unconditioned,  with  Nirvana, 
— his  way  is  difficult  to  understand,  like  that  of  birds  in  the 
ether. 

94.  He  whose  senses  have  come  to  repose,  like  a  horse 
well  subdued  by  the  driver,  who  has  cast  aside  pride  and 
is  free  from  all  desire, —  the  gods  even  envy  such  an  one. 

97.  He   who   is    free    trom    credulity,  but    knows    the 
Uncreated,  who  has  cut  all  ties,  removed  all  temptations, 
renounced  all  desire, —  he  certainly  is  the  greatest  of  men. 

98.  In  a  hamlet  or  in  a  forest,  in  the  deep  water  or  on 


114  BUDDHA. 

the    dry    land,    wherever   venerable   persons   dwell, —  that 
place  is  delightful. 

99.  Forests  are  delightful;  where  the  multitude  finds  no 
delight,  there  the  passionless  will  find  delight,  for  they  seek 
not  pleasures. 

103.  If  one  man   conquer  in  battle  a  thousand  times 
a  thousand  men,  and  if  another  conquer  himself — he  cer- 
tainly is  the  greatest  of  victors. 

104,  105.  One's  own  self  conquered  is  better  than  all 
other  people.     Not  even  a  god,  a  Gandharva,  (fairy),  not 
Mara  can  change  for   such   an  one   (who  has   conquered 
himself  and  always  restrains  himself),  victory  into  defeat. 

114.  He  who  lives  a  hundred  years,  not  seeing  the  im- 
mortal place, —  a  life  of  one  day  is  better  if  a  man  sees  the 
immortal  place. 

121.  Let  no  one  make  small  account  of  evil,  saying,  It 
will  not  come  near  unto  me ;    by  the  falling  of  drops  the 
water-pot  is  filled,  and  the  foolish  man  is  filled  with  evil, 
taking  it  up  little  by  little. 

122.  JLet  no  one  make  small  account  of  the  good,  saying, 
It  will  not  benefit  me;  by  the  falling  of  drops  the  water-pot 
is  filled,  and  the  wise  man  becomes  full  of  good,  gathering 
it  up  little  by  little. 

123.  Let  a  man  avoid  evil  deeds,  as  a  merchant  if  he 
carries  much  wealth   and  has  few  companions,  avoids   a 
dangerous  way;  as  a  man  who  loves  life  avoids  poison. 

125.  If  a  man  offend  a  harmless,  pure  and  innocent  per- 
son, the  evil  falls  back  upon  that  fool,  like  light  dust  thrown 
against  the  wind. 

127.  Neither  in  air,  nor  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  nor  in 
the  clefts  of  the  mountains,  is  any  place  found  where  a  man 
might  be  freed  from  an  evil  deed. 

133.  Uo  not  speak  harshly  to  any ;  those  who  are 
spoken  to  will  answer  thee  in  the  same  way.  Angry 
speech  is  painful,  blows  for  blows  will  touch  thee. 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  115 

135.  As  a  cowherd  with  his  staff  gathers  his  cows  into 
the  stable,  so  do  Age  and  Death  gather  the  life  of  man, 
(gather  all  living). 

151.  The  brilliant  chariots  of  kings  are  destroyed,  the 
body  also  becomes  old  and  decays,  but  the  virtues  of  the 
good  know  not  age  or  decay;  thus  do  the  good  say  to  the 
good. 

159.  Let  a  man  so  make  himself  as  he  teaches  others  to 
be  ;  he  who  is  well  subdued  may  subdue  others  ;  one's  own 
self  it  is  difficult  to  subdue. 


There  is  no  doctrine  of  commercial  substitution 
here,  not  a  shade  of  our  Western  dream  of  atonement 
by  vicarious  blood.  Indeed  Spence  Hardy,  a  Wes- 
leyan  missionary,  many  years  resident  in  Ceylon,  finds 
this  one  of  the  most  hopeless  things  in  the  prospect 
regarding  the  conversion  of  the  Buddhists ;  they  know 
nothing  of  the  salvation  by  blood;  it  is  so  foreign 
to  their  entire  system  of  religion  that  there  is  found 
no  place  in  the  Oriental  mind  whereon  to  graft  such 
a  conception.  "The  Buddhist 'knows  nothing  of  an 
atonement.  *  *  *  *  In  the  wilderness  to  which 
he  is  driven,  no  cross  does  he  see.  no  river  of  blood, 
no  fountain  of  life,  with  the  cheering  words  inscribed 
on  the  rock  that  overhangs  it,  '  Whosoever  will,  let 
him  come,  and  drink  freely  and  live,'"  says  the 
missionary.  Pitiable  indeed !  They  have  the  notion, 
these  poor  pagans,  that  each  must  reap  the  fruit  of 
his  own  doing,  and  that  there  is  no  possible  device 


Il6  BUDDHA. 

of  escape.  "He  who  dies  is  accompanied  only  "by 
his  merit  and  demerit  ;  nothing  else  whatever  goes 
with  him/'  says  Rathapala. 

165.  By  oneself  the  evil  is  done,  by  oneself  one  surfers  ; 
by  oneself  evil  is  left  undone,  by  oneself  one  is  purified. 
Purity  and  impurity  belong  to  oneself,  no  one  can  purify 
another. 

276.  You  yourself  must  make  an  effort.  The  Tatha- 
gatas  are  but  preachers.  The  thoughtful  who  enter  the 
way  are  freed  from  the  bondage  of  Mara. 

175.  Swans  [wild  fowl  ?]  go  on  the  path  of  the  sun,  they 
go  through  the  ether  by  means  of  their  miraculous  power ; 
the  wise  are  borne  out  of  this  world,  when  they  have  over- 
come Mara  and  his  train. 

193.  A  miraculous  man,  a  Buddha,  not  easy  to  find,  is 
not  born  everywhere.  Wherever  such  a  sage  is  born,  that 
race  prospers. 

201.  Victory  breeds  hatred,  for  the  conquered  is  un- 
happy. He  who  has  given  up  both  victory  and  defeat,  he, 
the  contented,  is  happy. 

204.  Health  is  the  greatest  of  gifts,  contentedness  the 
best  riches,  trust  the  best  of  relatives,  Nirvana  the  sum  ot 
delights. 

219.  Kinsfolk,  friends  and  dear  ones  salute  him  who, 
tar-traveled,  returns  home  safe  : 

220.  .So,  the  good  deeds  done,  welcome  him  who,  going 
from  this  world,  enters  the  other. 

222.  He  who   holds   back   rising  anger  like  a  rolling 
chariot,  him  I  call  a  real  driver  ;  the  rest  do  but  hold  the 
reins. 

223.  By  gentleness  overcome  anger  ;  by  good,  evil ;  by 
liberality,  greed;  by  openness  and  truth,  dissembling  and 

falsehood. 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  1 1 7 

224.  Speak  the  truth  ;  yield  not  to  anger ;  give,  when 
asked,  of  the  little  thou  hast ;  by  these  three  steps  thou 
shalt  go  near  the  gods. 

239.  Let  a  wise  man  blow  off  the  impurities  of  his  soul, 
as  a  smith  blows  off  the  impurities  of  silver,  one  by  one, 
little  by  little  and  from  time  to  time. 

247.  The  man  who  gives  up  himself  to  drinking  intoxi- 
cating liquors, —  he,  even  in  this  world,  digs  up  his  own 
root. 

251.  There  is  no  fire  like  lust,  no  bondage  like  hatred, 
no  toil  (snare)  like  perturbation,  no  river  like  desire. 

252.  The   faults  of  others  are  easily  seen,  one's  own 
difficult  to  see  ;    others'  faults  one  lays  open  as  much  as 
possible,  his  own  he  hides,  as  a  cheat  hides  the  bad  die 
from  the  gambler. 

^04.  Good  people  shine  from  afar,  like  the  snowy  moun- 
tains; bad  people  are  not  seen,  like  arrows  shot  by  night. 

354.  The  gift  of  the  law  exceeds  all  gifts  ;  the  sweetness 
of  the  law  exceeds  all  sweetness  ;  the  delight  in  the  law 
exceeds  all  delights ;  the  extinction  of  thirst  overcomes  all 
pain. 

367.  He  who  never  identifies  himself  with  his  body  and 
soul,  and  does  not  grieve  over  what  is  no  more,  he  indeed 
is  called  a  Bhikshu  (mendicant,  saint). 

370.  Cut  off  the  five  (senses),  leave  the  five,  rise  above 
the  five.  A  Bhikshu,  who  has  escaped  the  five  fetters, —  he 
is  called  Oghatinnas  (passed  the  flood). 

372.  Without  knowledge  there  is  no  meditation,  with- 
out meditation  there  is  no  knowledge :  in  whom  knowledge 
and  meditation  are  united,  he  surely  is  near  unto  Nirvana. 

377.  As  the  Vassika-plant  sheds  its  withered  flowers, 
so,  O  Bhikshus,  shed  passion  and  hatred  ! 


Il8  BUDDHA. 

THE   BRAHMANA.* 

385.  He  for  whom  there  is  neither  this  nor  that  shore, 
nor  both,  fearless,  unshackled, —  him  I  call  indeed  a  Brah- 
mana. 

386.  He  who  is  thoughtful,  blameless,  dwells  alone,  does 
his  duties,  is  free  from  desires,  has  attained  the  highest 
end, — him  I  call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 

392.  After  a   man   has   once   understood   the    Law  as 
taught  by  the  Well-awakened,  let  him  worship  it  carefully, 
as  the  Brahmana  worships  the  sacrificial  fire. 

393.  A   man    does   not   become   a  Brahmana    by   his 
plaited  hair,  by  his  family,  or  by  both  ;  in  whom  there  is 
truth  and  righteousness,  he  is  blessed,  he  is  a  Brahmana. 

398.  He  who  has  cut  the  girdle  and  the  strap,  the  rope 
with  all  that  pertains  to  it,  he  who  has  burst  the  bar,  and  is 
awakened,  —  him  I  call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 

399.  He   who,  though    he    has  committed   no   offense, 
endures  reproach,  bonds  and  stripes,  strong  in   power  of 
endurance,    active    in    its   exercise, —  him  I  call  indeed    a 
Brahmana. 

406.  He  who  is  tolerant  with  the  intolerant,  mild  withf 
fault-finders,  free  from  passion  among  the  passionate, —  him 

I  call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 

407.  He  from  whom  anger  and  hatred,  pride  and  envy 
have  dropt  like  a  mustard  seed  from  the  point  of  an  awl, — 
him  I  call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 

411.  He  who  has  no  interests,  and  when  he  has  under- 
stood (the  truth),  does  not  say,  How,  how?  —  he  who  can 
dive  into  the  Immortal, —  him  I  call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 


*The  book  is  divided  into  sections  called  from  their  subjects, 
"Watchfulness,"  "Thought,"  "The  Wise  Man,"  "The  Fool," 
'The  Venerable,"  "The  Way,"  "The  Bhikshu,"  etc.  The  last  is 
entitled  "The  Brahmana." 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  119 

412.  He  who  is  above  good  and  evil,  above  the  bondage 
of  both,  free  from  grief,  from  sin,  from  impurity, —  him  I 
call  indeed  a.  Brdhmana. 

417.  He   who,  after  leaving  all  bondage  to   men,  has 
risen  above  all  bondage  to  the  gods,  who  is  free  from  every 
bondage, —  him  I  call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 

418.  The  hero  who  has  conquered  all  worlds, — him  I 
call  indeed  a  Br&hmana. 

423.  He  who  knows  his  former  abodes,  who  sees  heaven 
and  hell,  has  reached J:he  end  of  births,  is  perfect  in  knowl- 
edge and  a  sage,  whose  perfections  are  all  perfect, —  him  I 
call  indeed  a  Brahmana. 

We  add  here  the  declaration  ascribed  to  Gautama 
in  that  great  hour  when  under  the  tree  at  Bodhi- 
manda,  he  attained,  as  he  deemed,  full  vision,  be- 
came Buddha,  felt  that  now  he  saw,  was  emanci- 
pate and  free.  Filled  with  ecstasies  of  delight,  he 
could  not  refrain  from  bursting  into  rapturous  song. 
This  is  found  also  in  the  Dhammapadam*  The 
free  rendering  we  give  here,  measurably  a  para- 
phrase, but  a  true  one,  is  from  Mr.  Alger,  as  it 
appeared  in  his  interesting  volume  of  selections  from 
Oriental  Poetry,  f 

"A  pilgrim  through  eternity, 
In  countless  births  have  I  been  born, 
And  toiled  the  Architect  to  see, 
Who  builds  my  soul's  live  house  in  scorn. 


*  Verses  153,  154. 
f  Boston,  1856. 


120  BUDDHA. 

O  painful  is  the  road  of  birth, 
By  which  from  house  to  house  made  o'er, 
Each  house  displays  the  kind  and  worth 
Of  the  desires  I  loved  before. 

Dread  Architect !    I  now  have  seen  thy  face, 

And  seized  thy  precept's  law ; 

Of  all  the  houses  which  have  been, 

Not  one  again  my  soul  shall  draw. 

Thy  rafters  crushed,  thy  ridge-pole  too, 
Thy  work,  O  Builder,  now  is  o'er ; 
My  spirit  feels  Nirvana  true, 
And  I  shall  transmigrate  no  more." 

One  does  not  so  much  wonder  at  the  enthusi- 
astic praise  bestowed  by  the  Buddhists  upon  the 
utterances  of  their  prophet,  considering  that  we  find 
such  as  these  scattered  in  liberal  measure  in  one 
at  least  of  the  books  of  their  Canon.  They  say  : 

"The  discourses  of  Buddha  are  as  a  divine  charm  to 
cure  the  poison  of  evil  desire  ;  a  divine  medicine  to  heal  the 
disease  of  anger  ;  a  lamp  in  the  midst  of  the  darkness  of 
ignorance  ;  a  fire  like  that  which  burns  at  the  end  ot  a 
kalpa  to  destroy  the  evils  of  repeated  existence  ;  a  great 
rain  to  quench  the  flame  of  sensuality  ;  a  ship  in  which  to 
sail  to  the  opposite  shore  of  the  ocean  of  existence  ;  a  col- 
lyrium  for  taking  away  the  eye-film  of  heresy  ;  a  succession 
of  trees  bearing  immortal  fruit,  placed  here  and  there,  by 
which  the  traveler  may  be  enabled  to  cross  the  desert  of 
existence  ;  a  straight  highway,  by  which  to  pass  to  the  in- 
comparable wisdom  ;  a  door  of  entrance  to  the  eternal  city 
of  Nirvana  ;  a  talismanic  tree  to  give  whatever  is  requested  ; 
a  flavor  more  exquisite  than  any  other  in  the  three  worlds  ; 


SENTENCES   OF  SCRIPTURE.  121 

a  power  by  which  may  be  appeased  the  sorrow  of  every 
sentient  being." 

In  another  place  it  is  declared  the  dharma 
''shines  upon  the  darkness  of  the  world,  as  the 
rays  of  the  sun,  when  this  luminary  has  ascended 
the  Yugandhara  rocks,  shine  upon  the  lotus  flowers 
of  the  lake,  causing  them  to  expand  and  bringing 
out  their  beauty."*  "His  doctrine/''  says  the  author 
of  a  legend  we  find  in  the  Chinese,  "he  described 
as  the  centre  of  invariable  splendor,  as  the  incom- 
plete and  the  full,  the  unutterable  and  the  ever  spoken, 
as  something  which  cannot  be  heard,  and  yet  is  ever 
heard"  "Bright  as  a  mirror,"  he  adds,  "was  the 
opening  of  his  wisdom's  store,  lofty  as  the  moun- 
tains, deep  as  the  sea,  like  the  thunder  and  the 
lightning  flash  was  the  brilliancy  and  the  depth  of 
his  penetration. "  f 

The  Dhammapadam  is  a  very  small  book,  a  mere 
brochure,  containing  in  all  but  423  verses,  but  the 
Buddhistic  Canon  is  very  voluminous.  It  is  divided 
into  three  parts  called  the  Tripitakas  or  three  Baskets, 
as  the  writing  was  originally  upon  palm  leaves,  which 
were  placed  for  keeping  in  baskets.  J  The  first  contains. 

*  Hardy,  E.  M.,  pp.  192,  193,  198. 

f  Beal's  Catena,  pp.  136,  142. 

|  See  Wasseljew,  p.  118.  So  also  now,  according  to  him,  the 
Thibetans  and  Mongolians  keep  their  sacred  books  (upon  paper)  in 
baskets. 


122  BUDDHA. 

the  Sutras   or  discourses  (to  which  the  Dhammapadam 
belongs);   the   second,   Vinaya,   or   morality,    mainly   a 
positive    code    for   the    direction    of    the    priests ;    and 
third,   the   Abhidharma,    or   by-law,   a  system  of  meta- 
physics.       Much    of    this    is    doubtless    later,    perhaps 
by  several  generations  than   Buddha,   though  all   is   of 
course   ascribed   directly  to  him,   or   to    his   immediate 
inspiration.       In  Thibet  they  have  two  gigantic  collec- 
tions,  the   Kanjur   and    the    Tanjur,    the    first    consist- 
ing   in    the    different    editions    of    100,    102    or    108 
folio   volumes,    and    containing     1,083    distinct   works, 
the  latter  of  223  folio  volumes,   each  of  which  weighs 
in    the   edition    of  Peking   from    four   to    five   pounds. 
These    works,   it    is    ascertained,   are    translations    from 
Sanscrit   originals,    copies    of    which,   in    part  at    least, 
have   been   found    in   Nepal.*       In   China   the   Canon 
includes     1,440     distinct     works,      comprising      5,586 
books,  f       The    Pali    originals   found    in    Ceylon,     less 
voluminous  indeed,   are  still   large,   containing,  accord- 
ing to  Spence   Hardy,   592,000  stanzas   (this,   however, 
includes   both    the    text    and    the   commentaries),    and 
have     in     turn     been      rendered     into     Birmese      and 
Siamese.       It   is   to   be   hoped   that   the   substance    or 

*  The  Buddhist  Canon  in  China,  says  Mr.  Edkins,  is  seven  hun- 
dred times  larger  than  the  Bible. 

*  See  a  good  account  of  the  character  and  contents  of  these  books 
in  Koeppen,  II.,  pp.  278-282. 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  12$ 

the  better  portions  of  these  may  be  given  in  an 
English  or  some  other  European  dress.  There  may 
quite  likely  be  choice  gems  exhumed  from  this  mass 
of  speculation  and  dreams. 

The  Chinese  have  a  little  work  they  call  "The 
Sutra  of  Forty-two  Sections."  It  was  brought  to 
China  from  India  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,* 
and  would  seem  certainly  at  that  date  to  have  held 
high  place  as  an  authority,  since  it  was  deemed  the 
one  book  most  fittingly  representing  the  doctrines 
of  the  teacher,  for  those  to  whom  the  new  word 
was  then  being  carried.  We  select  a  few  of  them 
to  show  the  quality.  The  translation  is  by  Mr.  Beal. 

7.  Buddha  said  :  A  man  who  foolishly  does  me  wrong, 
I  will  return  to  him  the  protection  of  my  ungrudging  love  ; 
the  more  evil  comes  from  him,  the  more  good  shall  go  from 
me  ;  the  fragrance  of  these  good  actions  always  redounding 
to  me,  the  harm  of  the  slanderer's  words  returning  to  him. 
For  as  sound  belongs  to  the  drum,  and  shadow  to  the  sub- 
stance, so  in  the  end,  misery  will  certainly  overtake  the 
evil  doer. 

8.  Buddha  said  :    A   wicked   man    who    reproaches  a 


f  So  says  Beal,  p.  189,  resting  apparently  upon  a  Chinese  author- 
ity. But  may  it  not  have  been  brought  in  earlier?  The  Buddhistic 
faith  was  introduced  into  China  very  early,  and  from  Turkistan,  where 
they  had  at  the  time  only  the  doctrines  of  the  little  Vehicle  (primitive 
Buddhism,  or  nearly  that),  and  this  Sutra  would  seem  to  belong  to 
the  earliest  age,  and  might  very  naturally  have  come  through  that 
source.  See  Wasseljew,  p.  100. 


124  BUDDHA. 

virtuous  one,  is  like  one  who  looks  up  and  spits  at  Heaven  ; 
the  spittle  soils  not  the  Heaven,  but  comes  back  and  defiles 
his  own  person.  So,  again,  he  is  like  one  who  flings  dirt  at 
another,  when  the  wind  is  contrary ;  the  dirt  does  but 
return  on  him  that  threw  it.  The  virtuous  man  cannot  be 
hurt ;  the  misery  that  the  other  would  inflict  comes  back  on 
himself. 

10.  Buddha  said  :     *    *    To  feed  one  good  man  is  in- 
finitely greater  in  point  of  merit  than  attending  to  questions 
about  heaven  and  earth,  spirits  and  demons.     These  mat- 
ters are  not  to  be  compared  to  the  religious  duty  we  owe  to 
our  parents.     Our  parents  are  very  divine. 

11.  Buddha  said:  There  are  twenty  difficult  things  in 
the  world  —  being  poor  to  be  charitable  ;  being  rich  and 
great,  to  be  religious  ;  to  escape  destiny  ;  to  get  sight  of  the 
Scriptures ;  to  be  born  when  a  Buddha  is  in  the  world  ;  to 
repress  lust  and  banish  desire  ;  to  see  an  agreeable  object 
and  not  seek  to  obtain  it ;  to  be  strong  without  being  rash  ; 
to  bear  insult  without  anger  ;  to  move  in  the  world  without 
setting  the  heart  on  it ;  to  investigate  a  matter  to  the  very 
bottom  ;  not  to  contemn  the  ignorant ;  thoroughly  to  extir- 
pate self-esteem  ;  to  be  good,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be 
learned  and  clever ;  to  see  the  hidden  principle  in  the  pro- 
fession of  Religion  ;  to  attain  one's  end  without  exultation  ; 
to  exhibit  in  a  right  way  the  doctrine  of  expediency  ;   to 
save  men  by  converting  them  ;  to  be  the  same  in  heart  and 
life  ;  to  avoid  controversy. 

13.  Buddha  said  :   Who  is  the  good  man  ?     The  reli- 
gious man  only  is  good.     And  what  is  goodness  ?     First 
and  foremost  //  is  the  agreement  of  the  will  with  the  con- 
science (Reason).     Who  is  the  great  man?     He  who  is 
strongest  in  the  exercise  of  patience.     He  who  patiently  en- 
dures injury  and  maintains  a  blameless  life  —  he  is  a  man 
indeed  ! 

14.  Buddha  said  :  A  man  who  cherishes  lust  and  desire, 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  125 

and  does  not  aim  after  ( see )  supreme  knowledge,  is  like  a 
vase  of  dirty  water,  in  which  all  sorts  of  beautiful  objects 
are  placed  —  the  water  being  shaken  up  men  can  see  noth- 
ing of  the  objects  therein  placed  ;  so  it  is,  lust  and  desire, 
causing  confusion  and  disorder  in  the  heart,  are  like  the 
mud  in  the  water ;  they  prevent  our  seeing  the  beauty  of 
supreme  reason.  But  remove  the  pollution,  and  imme- 
diately of  itself  comes  forth  the  substantial  form.  So  also 
when  a  fire  is  placed  under  a  pot,  and  the  water  within  is 
made  to  boil,  then  whoever  looks  down  upon  it  will  see  no 
shadow  of  himself.  So  the  three  poisons  which  rage  within 
the  heart,  and  the  five  obscurities  which  embrace  it,  effec- 
tually prevent  one  attaining  (seeing)  supreme  reason.  But 
once  get  rid  of  the  pollution  of  the  wicked  heart,  and  then 
we  perceive  the  spiritual  portion  of  ourselves  which  we 
have  had  from  the  first,  although  involved  in  the  net  of  life 
and  death  —  gladly  then  we  mount  to  the  Paradise  of  all  the 
Buddhas,  where  reason  and  virtue  continually  abide. 

15.  Buddha  said  :  A  man  who  devotes  himself  to  Relig- 
ion is  like  one  who  takes  a  lighted  torch  into  a  dark  house  ; 
the  darkness  is  at  once  dissipated,  and  there  is  light !    Once 
persevere  in  the  search  after  wisdom,  and  obtain  knowledge 
ot    truth  —  error  and   delusion  entirely  rooted   out  —  oh! 
what  perfect  illumination  will  there  be  ! 

16.  Buddha  said  :  In  reflection,  in  life,  in  conversation, 
in  study,  I  never  for  a  moment  forget  the  supreme  end, 
Religion  (Reason). 

18.  Buddha  said  :  Throughout  an  entire  day's  conduct 
to  keep  the  thoughts  steadily  on  Religion  (Reason),  and 
from  this  religious  conduct  to  realize  a  deep  principle  ot 
Faith  —  this  indeed  is  blessedness  without  measure. 

2 1. -Buddha  said:  A  man  who  rudely  grasps  after 
wealth  or  pleasure,  is  like  a  little  child  coveting  honey 
cut  with  a  knife ;  scarcely  has  he  had  one  taste  of  its 


126.  BUDDHA. 

sweetness,  before  he  perceives  the  pain  of  his  wounded 
tongue. 

24.  Buddha  said  :  Lust  and  desire,  in  respect  of  a  man, 
are  like  a  person  who  takes  a  lighted  torch  and  runs  with  it 
against  the  wind.  Foolish  man  !  not  letting  go  the  torch, 
you  must  needs  have  the  pain  of  a  burnt  hand  ;  and  so  with 
respect  to  the  poison  of  covetousness,  lust,  anger,  envy  ; 
*  *  the  misery  to  the  person  will  be  just  like  the  self- 
inflicted  pain  on  the  hand  of  the  foolish  man  bearing  the 
torch. 

28.  Buddha  addressed  all  the  Shamans  —  Guard  against 
looking  on  a  woman.  *  *  If  you  must  needs  speak  to 
her,  let  it  be  with  pure  heart  and  upright  conduct.  Say  to 
yourself — "I  am  a  Shaman,  placed  in  this  sinful  world; 
let  me  be  then  as  the  spotless  lily,  unsoiled  by  the  mud  in 
which  it  grows."  Is  she  old  ?  Regard  her  as  your  mother. 
Is  she  honorable  ?  Regard  her  as  your  sister.  Is  she  of 
small  account?  Regard  her  as  a  younger  sister.  Is  she  a 
child  ?  Treat  her  reverently  and  with  politeness. 

34.  Buddha  said  :  The  practice  of  Religion  is  just  like 
the  process  followed  in  an  iron  foundry.  The  metal,  being 
melted,  is  gradually  separated  from  the  dross  and  drops 
down  ;  so  that  the  vessel  made  from  the  metal  must  needs 
be  good.  The  way  of  wisdom  is  likewise  a  gradual  process, 
consisting  in  the  separation  of  all  heart  pollution,  and  so  by 
perseverance  reason  is  accomplished. 

40.  Buddha  said  :  A  man  in  the  practice  of  Religion, 
who  is  able  to  destroy  the  root  of  lust  and  desire  in  himself, 
may  be  compared  to  a  person  who  counts  over  his  beads. 
One  by  one  he  counts  them,  till  the  whole  be  finished.  So 
when  there  is  an  end  of  wickedness,  reason  is  attained. 

42.  Buddha  said  :  I  regard  the  dignities  of  kings  and 
princes  as  the  dust-motes  in  a  sunbeam  ;  the  value  of  gold 
and  jewels  as  that  of  a  broken  platter  ;  dresses  of  the  finest 
silk  I  regard  'as  the  scraps  of  silk  given  as  presents.  I 


SENTENCES  OF  SCRIPTURE.  12J 

regard  the  collective  chiliocosm  as  the  letter  "A"  (the 
symbol  of  the  earth).  The  different  expedients  in  religious 
practice  I  regard  as  a  mere  raft  to  carry  over  the  treasure. 
*  *  I  regard  the  state  of  perfect  mental  equilibrium  as 
the  true  standing  ground,  and  all  the  various  forms  of  ap- 
paritional  existence  as  the  changes  of  vegetation  during  the 
four  seasons.  * 

"  It  (the  Law)  is  as  a  cloud  which  with  a  garland  of  light- 
ning spreads  joy  on  the  earth  ;  the  water  falls  on  all  crea- 
tures, herbs,  bushes,  trees,  and  each  pumps  up  to  its  own 
leaf  and  blossom  what  it  requires  for  its  several  end.  So 
falls  the  rain  of  the  Law  upon  the  many-hearted  world. 
The  Law  is  for  millions  ;  but  it  is  one  and  alike  beautiful 
to  all  ;  it  is  deliverance  and  repose."* 

And  the  Singhalese  ascribe  this  to  Buddha  : 

"  Out  of  mud  springs  the  lotus  flower ;  out  of  clay 
come  gold  and  many  precious  things  ;  out  of  oysters  the 
pearls  ;  the  brightest  silks  to  robe  fairest  forms  are  spun  by 
a  worm  ;  bezoar  from  the  bull,  musk  from  the  deer  are  pro- 
duced ;  from  a  stick  is  born  flame  ;  from  the  jungle  comes 
sweetest  honey.  As  from  sources  of  little  worth  come  the 
precious  things  of  earth,  so  is  it  with  hearts  that  hold  their 
fortune  within.  They  need  not  lofty  birth  nor  noble  kin. 
Their  victory  is  recorded." 

One  of  the  school  reading-books,  we  are  told, 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  juveniles  in  Ceylon,  is  a 
collection  of  maxims  in  Sanscrit  by  a  Rishi,  Wasana. 
It  contains  sentences  whkh,  if  not  regarded  as 


*  Beal's  Catena,  pp.  193,  199,  201,  203. 

*  From  the  White  Lotus  of  the  Good  Laiv. 


128  BUDDHA. 

canonical,    well    deserve  careful   recording  and  remem- 
brance : 

"  As  drops  ot  water  falling  into  a  vessel  gradually  fill  it, 
so  are  all  science  and  instruction  and  riches  to  be  acquired." 

"Though  the  good  have  only  a  little  wealth,  like  the 
water  of  a  well,  it  is  useful  to  all.  Though  the  bad  have 
much  wealth,  like  the  salt  water  of  the  sea,  it  is  useful  to 
none." 

"The  evil  man  is  to  be  avoided,  though  he  be  arrayed 
in  the  robe  of  all  the  sciences,  as  we  flee  from  the  serpent, 
though  it  be  adorned  with  the  kantha  jewel." 

"We  must  be  deaf  in  hearing  the  evil  of  others,  blind  in 
seeing  the  imperfection  of  others  ;  as  those  without  mem- 
bers in  committing  sin,  and  as  those  without  a  mind  in 
thinking  to  do  wrong." 

"The  pearls  and  gems  which  a  man  has  collected,  even 
from  his  youth,  will  not  accompany  him  a  single  step 
towards  the  future  world  ;  friends  and  relatives  cannot 
proceed  a  step  further  than  the  place  of  sepulture  ;  but  a 
man's  actions,  whether  they  be  good  or  bad,  will  not  leave 
him,  they  will  follow  him  to  futurity." 

"A  good  action  done  in  this  world  will  receive  its 
reward  in  the  next ;  even  as  the  water  poured  at  the  root 
of  a  tree  will  be  seen  aloft  in  the  fruit  and  the  branches."* 

The  following  are  among  the  common  maxims 
of  the  priests  of  Siam  : 

"Glory  not  in  thyself,  but  rather  in  thy  neighbor." 

"Cause  no  tree  to  die." 

"  Eat  nothing  between  meals." 

* 
*  Hardy's  Eastern  Monachism.  pp.  316,  317. 


S£ArT£A'C£S  OF  SCRIPTURE.  129 

'•  Use  no  perfume  but  sweetness  of  thoughts." 

"Be  lowly  in  thy  thought,  that  thou  mayest  be  lowly 
in  thy  act." 

"  po  no  work  but  the  work  of  charity  and  truth." 

"Contract  no  friendship  with  the  hope  of  gain." 

"Borrow  nothing,  but  rather  deny  thy  want." 

"  Lend  not  unto  usury." 

"  Keep  neither  lance  nor  sword  nor  any  deadly  weapon." 

"Judge  not  thy  neighbor." 

"  Be  not  familiar,  nor  contemptuous." 

"  Labor  not  for  hire,  but  for  charity." 

"Look  not  upon  women  unchastely." 

"Give  no  medicines  which  contain  poison,  but  study 
to  acquire  the  true  art  of  healing,  which  is  the  highest 
of  all  arts,  and  pertains  to  the  wise  and  benevolent." 

"  Love  all  men  equally ." 

"  Perform  not  thy  meditations  in  public  places." 

"Make  rto  idols  of  any  kind."* 

*  Mrs.  Leonowens'  English  Coverness,  etc.,  p.  203. 


V. 

THE   DOCTRINE. 

IT  is  plain  that  this  man,  Buddha,  is  an  observer, 
he  has  seen  things,  read  secrets,  he  is  of  poetic 
temperament,  he  discerns  the  relations,  the  harmonies 
of  the  world,  and  uses  well  the  language  of  symbol. 
May  we  not  add  also  that  the  indications  are  of  an 
experience,  that  he  has  lived,  and  inearnated  the 
ideals  in  history? 

Probably  there  has  never  been  a  system  of  mo- 
rality so  purely  unselfish  offered  to  the  world.  It 
held  out  no  rewards,  recognized  not  even  the  per- 
sonal existence  of  the  saint  as  a  thing  to  be  pre- 
served at  all ;  it  was  pure  renunciation,  divorce  from 
all  regard  for  one's  self.  The  individual  may  perish, 
humanity,  the  great  interests  of  truth  and  virtue, 
welfare  of  the  universe,  shall  live.  I  am  to  die 
and  be  extinguished  for  the  life  of  the  world.  We 
compare  this  man  here  with  the  saint  we  all  ven- 
erate, the  Jesus  all  our  Western  world  prays  to,  and 
the  comparison  is  not  unfavorable  to  the  former. 


THE  DOCTRINE.  131 

Jesus  seems  to  have  been  not  quite  uniform,  for- 
getting himself  and  preaching  now  the  doctrines  of 
noblest  self-renunciation,  then  again  somewhat  assert- 
ting  himself  and  making  great  promises  in  this  life 
and  the  life  to  come  to  his  chosen  Ones.  Sakya- 
Muni  does  this  last,  never.  He  offers  throughout 
no  rewards  other  than  self-denial  and  virtue  itself. 
The  self,  the  person  is  so  far  forgotten  that  he  seems 
extinguished  in  the  work  and  the  grand  destiny. 
Man  is  to  be  glorified  in  humanity.  And  so  the 
doctrine  has  been  thought  but  a  gospel,  if  such  a 
word  may  come  in,  of  annihilation.  There  are  no 
conquests,  no  power,  no  wealth  in  store.  In  this 
we  think'  Sakya-Muni  is  not  the  inferior  of  the 
Galilean  youth.  It  is  said  that  this  is  taking  us 
to  an  atmosphere  of  great  rarity,  that  few  here  can 
respire.  It  may  be  true,  but  it  indicates  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  founder  of  this  faith,  that  he  would 
know  nothing  at  all  save  the  great  verities  that  are 
the  life  and  the  end  of  man,  and  before  which  all 
else  is  as  naught. 

Of  course  it  is  difficult  to  '  see  how  we  are  to 
part  with  our  own  existence,  or  how  lose  sight 
utterly  of  ourselves.  The  denial  is  subsumed  by 
affirmation,  and  renunciation  is  constantly  transmut- 
ing in  our  thought  to  possession.  The  nice  meta- 
physics no  acuteness  can  fathom.  Buddha  doubtless 


*I32  BUDDHA. 

saw  also  this  fact  of  the  real,  and  such  terms  as 
"the  other  life,"  "the  highest  blessedness,"  etc.,  as 
the  synonyms  of  Nirvana,  indicate  well  that  he 
made  true  recognition.  But  he  was  certainly  right 
in  insisting  upon  the  not,  and  guarding  well  against 
all  worship  of  the  determinate  and  known,  and  so 
against  the  subtle  lapse  into  idolatry.  Had  men 
always  been  thus  careful  against  absorption,  there 
had  never  been  any  idolatry. 

Buddhism,  it  has  been  said,  has  no  God,  and 
the  charge  of  Atheism  has  been  laid  against  it 
widely,  and  on  the  part  of  many  who  ought  to 
know  whereof  they  affirm.  Doubtless  in  the  ordi- 
nary or  current  theological  sense  of  the  word, 
Buddha  was  an  Atheist.  He  never  refers,  so  far  as 
we  know,  to  any  supreme  personal  Being,  to  any 
individual  God.  "There  is  a  supreme  power,  but 
not  a  supreme  Being/'  says  Spence  Hardy,  charac- 
terizing the  doctrines  now  current  under  the  name 
of  Buddha.  In  reference  to  human  existence,  he 
does  not  seem  to  regard  personality  of  the  individ- 
ual as  permanent,  but  rather  as  something  phenom- 
enal and  transient,  the  result  itself  perhaps  of  some 
lapse  or  disorder,  and  in  the  enlarging  destiny  of 
the  soul  to  pass  away.*  At  any  rate,  whatever  he 


*  In  an  edition,  or  rather  abstract,  of  the  Prajna  Paramitd  (Abso- 
lute Wisdom),  a  work  belonging  to  the  great  Vehicle  school  (in  the 


THE  DOCTRINE.  133 

may  have  thought  of  personality  per  se,  he  forbore 
steadily  from  making  any  impersonation  of  God.  He 
knows  no  person  but  the  sublime  verities  into  which 
all  things  melt  and  sublimate,  and  which  again  are 
chiefly  significant  in  their  practical  relation  to  us, 
and  named  by  him*  Truth  or  the  Law.  Here  he 
is  a  believer,  a  deep,  an  emphatic  believer.  Sterner 
stress  one  could  not  lay  than  did  he  upon  their 
great  reality  and  all  commanding  worth  for  man. 
He  seems  to  have  been  conscious  of  the  impen- 
etrable mystery  that  hides  the  One  from  the  ken  of 
all  vision,  even  conceptual;  aware  too  of  the  swift 
danger  there  is  of  idolatry,  in  framing  any  imper- 
sonation, and  so  he  holds  himself  to  the  recognition 
of  the  transcendent  verities,  the  things  that  may  be 
well  called,  in  the  language  of  some  of  the  old 
thinkers  ra  vo^ra,  "the  intelligibles."  What  he  would 
have  said  if  undertaking  to  define  his  view  upon 
.the  unseen,  it  is  quite  impossible  for  any  one  now 
to  know.  He  seems  to  have  fancied  little  the  ex- 
tended abstract  speculations,  was  disinclined  to  spend 
time  upon  subtleties  that  elude  all  human  grasp. 
"The  ideas  of  being  and  not  being,"  he  says,  "do 


scholastic  period),  we  have  this  declaration  as  one  of  the  comments  of 
Theen  Tai.  "The  spiritual  body,  as  to  its  substance,  is  like  the  vast 
expanse  of  Space.  The  nature  of  man  and  his  reason  were  originally 
one  and  undivided."  See  p.  84,  Note. 


134  BUDDHA. 

not  admit  of  discussion,"  and  probably  he  abstained 
from  all  attempts  at  speculative  refining  and  determin- 
ing, out  of  regard  to  the  fact  that,  as  he  saw,  the 
problems  of  the  infinite  were  so  absolutely  transcend- 
ent and  insolvable.  In  like  spirit,  when  inquired  of 
with  reference  to  the  world,  whether  it  was  eternal 
or  not,  he  refused,  it  is  said,  to  make  any  answer, 
deeming  the  question  aimless  and  idle.  Before  the 
majestic  presence  he  bowed,  in  view  of  the  supreme 
ineffable,  his  spirit  worshiped  and  celebrated,  but 
forbore  to  describe  its  experience  or  to  name  its 
object. 

Considering  how  inaccessible  the  fact,  in  what 
light  unapproachable  it  dwells,  how  fruitless  withal 
has  been  all  the  laborious  speculation  to  seek  and 
solve  the  infinite,  and  considering  also  what  anthro- 
pomorphism there  has  always  been,  framing  the  un- 
seen in  sensuous  image,  what  degradation  and  idol- 
atry, and  that,  too,  so  habitually  in  the  purest  and 
best  forms  of  worship,  shall  we  not  say,  perhaps 
this  man  saw  farther  and  did  wiser  than  others  ? 
"He,  the  One,"  says  Hermes  Trismegistus,  "with 
many  names,  and  no  name."  Practically,  God  comes 
to  us  in  the  sublime  verities,  those  truths  and  facts 
that  are  all-sovereign  and  eternal.  True,  the  mind 
holds  by  inner  necessity  to  a  central  unity,  goes 
constantly  from  many  or  plural  to  one,  a  certain 


THE  DOCTRINE.  .        135 

person  in  which  all  the  impersonal  matures  and  is 
crowned.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  to  rest  in  person ; 
the  thought  posits  reality  greater  than  person,  and 
soars  away  beyond  the  realm  of  personal,  and  im- 
personal also,  as  we  know  the  impersonal.  We  are 
impatient  of  limitations,  and  in  dealing  with  the  high 
spiritual  reality,  the  absolute,  must  deny  them.  We 
must  rest  and  soar,  soar  and  rest,  the  rest  being 
ever  but  for  an  instant,  surrendered  for  new  flight, 
lest  by  tarrying  we  be  overcome  on  the  plain.  The 
worship  must  be  fluid,  in  movement  like  the  sea, 
whose  waters  keep  their  rest  in  flow,  and  are  main- 
tained sweet  thereby;  or  as  the  centre  of  gravity  is 
supported  in  one  walking,  by  perpetually  advancing 
step.  Such  is  the  destiny  of  the  human  soul,  the 
stern  fate  appointed,  transcending  yet  incarnating, 
incarnating  and  transcending,  working  new  ethereal- 
izations,  approaching  ever,  but  never  reaching  the 
infinite  goal.  To  keep  the  mind  free,  ascending, 
nearing  more  and  more  to  essence  and  substance, 
that  without  form,  enduring,  is  the  prime  necessity. 
We  can  lose  nothing  by  carrying  the  negations  to 
any  extent,  provided  we  include  and  cover  all  in 
broader  affirmation.  Giving  up  the  idea  of  personal 
God,  we  are  more  than  made  good  in  the  posses- 
sion of  a  higher  than  person. 

In  the  Buddhistic  faith,  as  we   have  it  historically, 


136  BUDDHA. 

Karma  seems  to  have  been  supreme  deity,  "The 
supreme  power/'  says  Hardy,  "is  Karma,"  the  law 
of  sanctions.  This  destiny  or  fate  is  the  providence 
that  presides  everywhere.  There  shall  be  no  inter- 
position, no  help,  no  partialities  of  friendship  shown 
you,  you  shall  reap  as  you  sow.  Naked  to  the 
other  world  you  shall  go,  carrying  only  your  desert, 
your  acquired  character  with  you.  The  Siamese 
minister  says,  "There  is  no  God,  who  judges  of 
these  acts,  etc.,  and  awards  recompense,  and  punish- 
ment, but  reward  or  punishment  is  simply  the  inev- 
itable effect  of  Kam  (Karma),  which  works  out  its 
own  results."  In  other  words,  as  we  should  say, 
the  supreme  is  incarnated,  enthroned  in  the  sovereign 
laws ;  these  are  omniscient  and  self-executive.  This 
is  not  a  harmful  atheism. 

Curiously  enough,  it  seems  to  this  heathen  that 
the  religions  of  the  world  divide  here.  "There  are 
philosophers  who  say  that  all  known  sects  may  be 
classed  under  two  religions  only  —  the  Brahmanyang 
and  the  Samanyang.  All  those  who  pray  for  assist- 
ance to  Brahma,  Indra,  God  the  Creator,  angels, 
devils,  parents,  or  other  intercessors  or  possible  bene- 
factors, all  who  believe  in  the  existence  of  any  being 
who  can  help  them,  and  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
are  Brahmanyang ;  while  all  who  believe  they  must 
depend  solely  on  the  inevitable  results  of  their  own 


THE  DOCTRINE,  137 

acts,  that  good  and  evil  are  consequences  of  pre- 
ceding causes,  and  that  merit  and  demerit  are  the 
regulators  of  existence,  and  who  therefore  do  not  pray 
to  any  to  help  them,  and  all  those  who  profess  to 
know  nothing  of  what  will  happen  after  death,  and 
all  those  who  disbelieve  in  a  future  existence,  are 
Samanyang."  * 

Much,  very  much  inquiry,  has  been  expended  upon 
the  Nirvana  of  Buddha,  its  proper  purport  and  meaning; 
in    the    mind    of    the    saint.       The    opinion    is   largely 
held    that   the   doctrine   is    nihilistic,    that    the   goal   it 
proposed   to   all    the    life-long    endeavor    was   the  gulf 
of   annihilation.        So   it   has    been    considered    to   be 
dark   and    cheerless   to    the    last    degree,    fit    only   for 
madmen.       Doubtless,   in   their   works  of  metaphysics, 
the    Buddhists    have    furnished    some    ground    for   the 
suspicions    and   charges   entered    against    them.      And. 
what  school  of  subtle  and  over-refining  philosophy  has 
not  ?       The    Greek    dialecticians    and    the   middle-age 
school-men  did  this,  and   in  India  we  have,  as  Cousin; 
long   ago  well   remarked,    "an   epitome   of  the   entire; 
history   of  philosophy."      All   the   phases    of  Western' 
thought   have   been  repeated,  and  with  an  added  em- 
phasis and    intensity   in   the   Eastern   mind. 

But    in    the    case   of    Buddha    himself,    and    quite 

Modern  Buddhist,  p.  37. 

10 


138  BUDDHA. 

probably  that  of  his  near  followers,  the  criticism  is, 
we  think,  at  fault.  It  has  not  apprehended  him. 
He  seems  nihilistic  because  he  is  so  purely  spirit- 
ualistic. He  has  to  deny  and  keep  on  repeating 
denial,  to  pave  the  way  for  the  only  possible  affirm- 
ation. He  can  suffer  no  representation  of  the  Infinite 
Good  for  the  soul.  It  is  so  good,  it  cannot  be 
described,  or  even  thought.  The  law  is  so  high  that 
it  cannot  be  cast  in  form,  it  flies  and  soars  away 
from  every  determination.  Eye  hath  not  seen  nor 
ear  heard.  Nirvana  is  the  ineffable,  the  untold  and 
unknown.  It  is  the  light  that  is  darkness  to  our 
eyes.  It  is  the  not  and  the  is;  is  qualified  by 
not,  and  not  transcended  and  extinguished  by  is. 
Buddha  was  conscious  of  the  impotence  of  speech  to 
name,  or  thought  to  apprehend,  and  he  made  no 
attempt  to  define  except  on  the  side  of  negation. 
But  that  he  held  it  in  the  affirmative,  we  may  not 
doubt. 

Plainly  we  must  in  fairness  interpret  the  Nirvana 
for  him  in  consistency  with  his  high  practical  char- 
acter. No  man  who  laid  such  emphasis  on  the  royal 
virtues,  who  was  himself  so  devoted,  with  a  lover's 
enthusiasm,  to  humanity,  who  had  a  heart  so  tender 
and  warm,  could  be  absorbed  and  lost  in  nihilism. 
This  belongs  to  renunciants,  to  withdrawn  dreamy 
speculators,  and  not  to  great  doers.  His  devotion, 


THE  DOCTRINE.  139 

self-sacrifice,    quenchless    benevolence   and   love,    place 
him  the  peer  of  the  highest  saints  of  history. 

"Watchfulness,"  he  declares,  "is  the  path  of 
immortality,  slothfulness  the  way  of  death  ;  the  slothful 
are  as  if  already  dead." 

' '  These  wise  people,  meditative,  persistent,  always 
possessed  of  strong  powers,  attain  to  Nirvana,  the 
highest  felicity." 

" —  Nirvana  —  the  sum   of  delights." 

"Who  is  filled  with  desire  for  the  Ineffable  (Nir- 
vana), who  is  rich  within,  whose  thoughts  are  not 
hampered  by  any  thirst,  —  him  I  call  Udhamsolas 
(borne  aloft)." 

"Who  can  dive  into  the  Immortal  —  him  I  call 
a  Brdhmana." 

"O  Bhikshu  (saint),  empty  this  boat!  emptied  it 
will  go  quickly ;  having  cut  off  passion  and  hatred, 
thou  wilt  go  to  Nirvana." 

"The  sages  who  injure  no  one,  who  always  con- 
trol their  body  —  they  will  go  to  the  immortal  abode, 
where,  if  they  have  gone,  they  will  never  sorrow 
more. ' ' 

.  "When  you  have  understood  the  destruction  of 
all  that  was  made,  then  you  will  understand  that 
which  was  not  made  (Nirvana)." 

"The  man  who  is  free  from  credulity,  but  knows 
the  Uncreated  (Nirvana),  who  has  cut  all  ties  and 


140  BUDDHA. 

taken   away  all  temptation,  renounced  all  desires  —  he 
is   the   greatest  of  men."  * 

In  the  Chinese  we  have  a  Sutra  which  has  a 
passage  on  this  wise : 

"  Basita  said,  Gautama,  there  are  four  kinds  of  condition 
in  the  world  which  are  spoken  of  as.  non-existent ;  the  first 
that  which  is  not  as  yet  in  being,  like  the  pitcher  to  be  made 
out  of  the  clay ;  secondly,  that  which  having  existed,  has 
been  destroyed,  as  a  broken  pitcher  ;  third,  that  which  con- 
sists in  the  absence  of  something  different  from  itself,  as  we 
say  the  ox  is  not  a  horse ;  and  lastly  that  which  is  purely 
imaginary,  as  the  hair  of  the  tortoise,  or  the  horn  of  the 
hare.  It  then,  by  having  got  rid  of  sorrow,  we  have  arrived 
at  Nirvana,  Nirvana  is  the  same  as  nothingness,  and  may 
be  considered  as  non-existent ;  but  if  so,  how  can  you  define 
it  as. permanence,  joy,  personality  and  purity  ? 

"  Buddha  said,  Nirvana  is  of  this  sort :  it  is  not  like  the 
pitcher  not  yet  made  out  of  the  clay,  nor  is  it  like  the  noth- 
ingness of  the  pitcher  which  has  been  broken  ;  nor  is  it  like 
the  horn  of  the  hare,  nor  the  hair  of  the  tortoise,  something 
purely  imaginary.  But  it  may  be  compared  to  the  nothing- 
ness defined  as  the  absence  of  something  different  from 
itself.  As  you  say,  although  the  ox  has  no  quality  of  the 
horse  in  it,  you  cannot  say  that  the  ox  does  not  exist ;  and 
though  the  horse  has  no  quality  of  the  ox  in  it,  you  cannot 
say  that  the  horse  does  not  exist.  Nirvana  is  just  so.  In 
the  midst  of  sorrow  there  is  no  Nirvana,  and  in  Nirvana 
there  is  no  sorrow.  So  we  may  justly  define  Nirvana  as 
that  sort  of  non-existence  which  consists  in  the  absence  of 
something  essentially  different  from  itself" 


*  DJiammapadam,  21,  23,  204,  218,  411,  369,  225,  383,  97. 


THE  DOCTRINE.  141 

Terms  in  Chinese  for  denning  Nirvana,  which 
may  be  rendered  "passive  splendor,"  and  "bright- 
ness and  rest,"  are  constantly  in  use  in  the  later 
.scholastic  works  on  Buddhism.  The  aim  is  to  denote 
the  perfect  union  of  activity  and  repose,  of  motion 
and  rest,  as  the  sun  or  the  moon,  they  say,  constantly 
emits  or  reflects  rays  of  light,  and  ^  yet  is  ever  sub- 
stantially at  rest*  In  Birmah,  Nigban  (Nirvana) 
is  denned  simply  as  freedom  from  old  age,  disease 
and  death. 

"All  along,"  says  Mr.  Beal,  "Buddhism  assumes 
that  the  same  condition  awaits  the  emancipated  soul 
as  is  enjoyed  by  the  Supreme  Mind." 

"In  Nirvana"  [with  the  Northern  Buddhists] 
says  Bastian,  "is  no  longer  either  birth  or  death; 
only  the  essence  of  life  remains.  Nirvana  is  nowhere 
(in  no  special  place),  only  because  it  is  all-embracing 
and  all-pervading."  "Far  from  being  annihilation, 
as  such,  it  is  in  fact  annihilation  of  delusion,  and 
therefore  the  real  itself."  "Lovely  is  the  glorious 
realm  of  Nirvana,"  say  the  Siamese,  "the  jeweled 
realm  of  happiness." 

In  this  connection  comes  naturally  the  doctrine 
of  Dhyana,  of  which  so  much  is  made  in  this  faith. 
It  seems  essentially  one  with  the  ecstasy  of  the  old 

*  BeaPs  Catena,  p.  250. 


142  BUDDHA. 

mystics.  It  hints  the  withdrawal,  the  emancipation 
of  the  soul  from  all  shackles,  outer  or  inner,  till  it 
arrives  at  the  perfect  liberty,  perfect  possession  and 
deliverance  into  the  infinite  repose.  The  saint  must 
withdraw  into  complete  solitude,  abdicating  all  care 
and  unrest.  He  knows  only  one  desire,  desire  for 
Nirvana.  Satisfaction  succeeds,  he  enjoys  this  presence 
and  is  content.  But  satisfaction  itself  must  cease, 
and  all  ratiocinative  or  thinking  process ;  enjoyment 
must  come  in  so  high  that  it  knows  not  joy.  Self- 
consciousness,  feeling,  must  pass  away;  pleasure  as 
pain,  memory  and  all  knowledge  fade  and  be  known 
no  more.  And  now,  in  the  fourth  stage,  as  it  is 
called,  the  doors  of  Nirvana  open.  The  conscious- 
ness has  transcended  the  consciousness  of  self,  the 
knowledge  all  determinate  knowing ;  there  is  no 
desire,  no  lack,  no  action  ;  there  is  exaltation  and 
absolute  repose.  The  Buddha,  one  awakened  and 
enlightened,  now  passes  into  infinity,  infinity  of  space, 
of  intelligence,  into  region  of  naught,  i.  e.,  not  aught. 
Nay,  the  naught  itself  must  be  annihilated,  and  is 
transcended  by  a  larger  generalization,  an  absolute 
which  is  neither  naught  nor  not  naught,  a  sphere 
wherein  is  neither  idea  of  being  nor  non-being,  nor 
non-idea  of  either.  Such  a  giddy  flight,  such  a 
culmination  of  the  abstract,  was  hardly  possible  with 
any  other  than  an  Oriental  mind.  It  was  ecstasy 


THE  DOCTRINE.  143 

and  absorption,  but  not  absorption  into  substance  or 
God,  since  Buddha  recognized  in  no  determinate  idea 
either  substance  or  the  divine. 

Buddha  is  said  to  have  passed  through  the  four 
stages  of  Dhyana  once,  and  to  have  been  making  the 
passage  into  the  fourth,  as  under  the  Sal  tree  he 
entered  Nirvana. 

The  recognition  of  the  transcendent  character  of 
the  spiritual,  the  subtle  and  the  impalpable  essence 
of  the  unseen,  and  the  struggle  of  the  soul  with  the 
embarrassments  of  form  and  sense,  the  willingness, 
but  inability,  to  rise  beyond  the  time  and  space 
conditions,  which  with  their  hard  necessities  are  ever 
upon  us,  are  well  illustrated  in  a  conversation  between 
King  Milinda  and  Nagasena,  a  missionary,  and  bearing 
date,  as  would  seem,  a  little  before  the  beginning  of 
our  Christian  era.  * 
The  king  says : 

You  speak  of  Nirvana ;  but  can  you  show  it  to  me,  or 
explain  it  to  me  by  color,  whether  it  be  blue,  yellow,  red 
or  any  other  color ;  or  by  sign,  locality,  length,  manner, 
metaphor,  cause  or  order ;  in  any  of  these  ways,  or  by  any 
of  these  means,  can  you  declare  it  to  me  ? 

Nagasena — I  cannot  declare  it  by  any  of  these  attributes 
or  qualities. 

Milinda — This  I  cannot  believe. 


*  Milinda  Prasna,  a  work  in  Pali,  found  also  in  Singhalese  trans- 
lation.    See  Eastern  Monachism,  p.  7. 


144  BUDDHA. 

N&gasena — There  is  the  great  ocean.  Were  any  one  to 
ask  you  how  many  measures  of  water  there  are  in  it,  or  how 
many  living  creatures  it  contains,  what  would  you  say  ? 

Milinda — I  should  tell  him  that  it  was  not  a  proper 
question  to  ask,  as  it  is  one  that  no  one  can  answer. 

Nagasena — In  the  same  way  no  one  can  tell  the  size  or 
shape  or  color  or  other  attributes  of  Nirvana,  though  it  has 
its  own  proper  and  essential  character.  A  Rishi  might 
answer  the  question  to  which  I  have  referred,  but  he  could 
not  declare  the  attributes  of  Nirvana,  neither  could  any 
deva  of  the  arupa  worlds. 

Milinda — It  may  be  true  that  Nirvana  is  happiness,  and 
that  its  outward  attributes  cannot  be  described  ;  but  cannot 
its  excellence  or  advantages  be  set  forth  by  some  mode  of 
comparison  ? 

Nagasena — It  is  like  the  lotus  as  it  is  free  from  klesha  (the 
lower  desire),  as  the  lotus  is  separate  from  the  mud  out  of 
which  it  springs.  It  is  like  water,  as  it  quenches  the  fire  of 
klesha,  as  water  cools  the  body ;  it  also  overcomes  the  thirst 
for  that  which  is  evil,  as  water  overcomes  the  natural  thirst. 
It  is  like  a  medicine,  as  it  assists  those  who  are  suffering 
from  the  poison  of  klesha,  as  medicine  assists  those  who  are 
suffering  from  sickness  ;  it  also  destroys  the  sorrow  of  re- 
newed existence,  as  medicine  destroys  disease  ;  and  it  is 
immortal,  as  medicine  wards  off  death.  It  is  like  the  sea,  it 
is  free  from  the  impurity  of  klesha,  as  the  sea  is  free  from 
every  kind  of  defilement ;  it  is  vast,  infinite,  so  that  count- 
less beings  do  not  fill  it,  as  the  sea  is  unfathomable  and  is 
not  filled  by  all  the  waters  of  all  the  rivers.  It  is  like  space, 
as  it  is  not  produced  (by  any  exterior  cause) ;  it  does  not 
die,  does  not  pass  away,  is  not  reproduced  ;  it  has  no 
locality  ;  it  is  the  abode  of  the  Rahats  and  Buddhas,  as 
space  is  the  habitation  of  birds  ;  it  cannot  be  hid.  and  its 
extent  is  boundless.  It  is  like  the  magical  jewel,  as  it  gives 
whatever  is  desired. 


THE  DOCTRINE.  145 

It  is  like  red  sandal  wood,  as  it  is  difficult  to  be  pro- 
cured ;  its  perfume  is  also  peerless,  and  it  is  admired  by 
the  wise.  It  is  like  Maha  M£ru,  as  it  is  higher  than  the 
three  worlds,  its  summit  is  difficult  to  be  attained  ;  and  as 
seeds  will  not  vegetate  on  the  surface  ot  the  rock,  neither 
can  klgsha  flourish  in  Nirvana ;  and  it  is  free  from  enmity 
or  wrath. 

Again  he  says : 

It  cannot  be  said  that  it  is  produced  nor  that  it  is  not 
produced  ;  that  it  is  past,  future,  or  present,  nor  can  it  be 
:said  that  it  is  the  seeing  of  the  eye  or  the  hearing  of  the 
ear,  or  the  smelling  of  the  nose,  or  the  tasting  of  the  tongue, 
or  the  feeling  of  the  body. 

Milinda — Then  you  speak  of  a  thing  that  is  not ;  you 
merely  say  that  Nirvana  is  Nirvana  ;  therefore  there  is  no 
Nirvana. 

Nagasena — Great  king,  Nirvana  is;  it  is  a  perception 
of  the  mind  ;  the  pure  delightful  Nirvana,  free  from  ignor- 
ance and  evil  desire,  is  perceived  by  the  Rahats  who  enjoy 
the  fruition  of  the  paths. 

Milinda — It  there  be  any  comparison  by  which  the 
nature  or  properties  of  Nirvana  can  be  rendered  apparent, 
be  pleased  thus  to  explain  them. 

Nagasena — There  is  the  wind  ;  but  can  its  color  be 
told  ?  Can  it  be  said  that  it  is  in  such  a  place,  or  that  it 
is  small  or  great,  or  long  or  short  ? 

Milinda — We  cannot  say  that  the  wind  is  thus  ;  it  can- 
not be  taken  into  the  hand  and  squeezed.  Yet  the  wind  is. 
We  know  it  because  it  pervades  the  heart,  strikes  the  body, 
and  bends  the  trees  of  the  forest  ;  but  we  cannot  explain  its 
nature  or  tell  what  it  is. 

Nagasena — Even  so  Nirvana  is;  destroying  the  in- 
finite sorrow  of  the  world,  and  presenting  itselt  as  the  chief 


146  BUDDHA. 

happiness  of  the  world,  but  its  attributes  or  properties  can- 
not be  declared. 

There  is  close  similarity  here  in  the  illustration 
employed  from  the  wind,  and  that  of  Jesus,  in  de- 
scribing the  being  born  of  the  spirit. 

Again  Nagasena,  in  response  to  the  king,  who, 
unable  to  get  out  of  the  space  conditions,  con- 
tinually plies  the  question  "Where  is  that  place?" 
declares  it  is 

Neither  in  the  east,  south,  west  or  north,  neither  in  the 
sky  above  nor  in  the  earth  below,  nor  in  any  of  the  infinite 
sakwalas  is  there  such  a  place,  but  wherever  the  precepts 
can  be  observed.  And  there  may  be  observance  in  Ya- 
wana,  China,  Milata,  Alanda,  Kosala,  the  summit  of  MahS, 
Meru,  or  the  brahma-lokas  ;  it  may  be  anywhere,  just  as 
he  who  has  two  eyes  can  see  the  sky  from  any  or  all  of 
these  places,  or  as  any  of  these  places  may  have  an  eastern 
side. 

Milinda  asks : 

Does  the  All-wise  (Buddha)  exist  ? 

Nagasena — He  who  is  the  most  meritorious  (Bhagavat) 
does  exist. 

Milinda — Then  can  you  point  out  to  me  the  place  in 
which  he  exists  ? 

Nagasena — Our  Bhagavat  has  attained  Nirvana,  where 
there  is  no  repetition  of  birth  ;  we  cannot  say  that  he  is 
here  or  that  he  is  there.  He  is  like  the  sun  that  has  set 
behind  the  Astagiri  mountain  ;  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  is 
here  or  that  he  is  there,  but  we  can  point  him  out  by  the 
discourses  he  delivered  ;  in  these  he  still  lives.* 

*  Eastern  Monachism,  pp.  297,  298,  295,  299,  300. 


THE  DOCTRINE.  147 

• 
Nirvana   is   the   house   not   made   with    hands,    the 

abode  beyond  all  abodes,  the  world  we  aspire  to, 
transcending  all,  taking  constantly  form  in  our 
thought,  but  not  to  be  cast  in  form,  the  ethereal 
reality  soaring  on  and  on  beyond  every  thing  deter- 
minate forever.  It  is  gained  through  renunciation, 
through  surrender  and  the  higher  choice  continually. 
It  is  found  in  pursuit  and  rest,  activity  that  is  re- 
pose and  perpetual  possession.  Giordano  Bruno 
hints  it  when  he  sings, 

"  nascendo  il  pensier,  more  il  desio" 

At  the  birth  of  thought  desire  dies  away. 

It  is  the  dream  of  life,  the  ideal  felicity,  that  all 
more  or  less  clearly  discern,  or  at  least  feel  and 
pant  for,  but  fewest,  even  in  remote  approximation, 
attain.  It  is  the  infinitude  of  God,  the  heritage 
and  longing  and  goal  ever  of  the  finite  soul.  It 
is  that  everlasting  trust  that  rests  and  believes  when 
all  fails,  assured  that  there  can  be  no  failure,  that 
all  things  work  together  for  good.  It  is  the  dwell- 
ing in  "the  adequate  ideas,"  as  Spinoza  terms  them, 
those  supreme  considerations  that  lift  beyond  temp- 
tation and  all  allurement.  It  is  perpetual  flowing 
and  ascending,  no  pause,  no  attachment  or  fastening 
anywhere,  and  yet  the  deepest,  a  constantly  increas- 
ing hold  upon  substance,  and  the  abiding.  In  a 


148  BUDDHA. 

i 

word,  it   is   realization  and  aspiration,   satisfaction  and 
thirst  in  one. 

The  complete  attainment  by  any  one  would  be 
the  fulfillment  of  all  dreams,  the  accomplishment  of 
every  prophecy,  the  subjection  —  aye,  the  elimination 
of  time  from  the  soul.  It  is  the  goal,  boundless, 
everlasting,  infinitely  removed,  yet  most  intimately 
present,  which  we  are  each  ever  to  near,  but  never 
to  reach.  Buddha  saw  it  and  sang  it,  and  fain 
would  he  rend  the  barrier  and  enter  into  full  pos- 
session. The  great  reconciler,  the  redeemer,  has  not 
yet  come,  the  desire  of  all  nations  is  awaited  still. 
All  hitherto  have  been  but  forerunners  of  the  Mes- 
sias,  Baptists  in  the  wilderness,  shouting,  "Prepare, 
prepare  ye  the  way."  Ages,  and  perhaps  millen- 
niums, must  yet  pass  ere  the  great  synthesis  shall 
be  wrought  and  the  mystery  of  being  be  dissolved 
and  absorbed  in  spirit.  We  look  for  him  that  should 
come,  and  we  recall  that  there  shall  be  no  person, 
that  the  secret  is  too  deep  and  subtle  that  any  human 
tongue  can  ever  tell.  But  looking  back  over  history, 
we  find  some  indications  that  this  Indian  saint  had 
partially  clear  vision,  that  he  sighted,  albeit  dimly 
and  from  afar,  the  infinite  goal. 

Buddha  did  not  perhaps  draw  the  affirmations  as 
he  ought,  dwelt  too  much  in  negation.  The  thought 
affirms,  builds,  and  amid  every  denial  constructs  new 


THE  DOCTRINE.  149 

positive.  This  is  all  safe  while  it  continues  tran- 
scendent and  on-flowing.  But  the  entanglements 
are  so  numerous  and  ever  recurring,  the  fatality  in 
all  history  has  been  shown  so  constantly  in  pausing 
and  making  the  form  the  eidolon,  that  we  may  deem 
his  jealousy  of  any  worship  of  the  determinate  as 
rather  a  merit  than  a  defect.  Under  this  wholesome 
restraint  it  was,  doubtless,  that  he  forbore  to  describe 
God  as  a  person,  for  he  would  admit  nothing 
unworthy,  would  not  profane  the  idea  within  him  of 
the  illimitable.* 

The  great  fact  of  this  transiency  and  decay  in 
existence  staggered  him,  it  fairly  haunted  his  brain, 
and  he  sought  by  all  means  possible  to  find  some 
solution.  Why  must  it  be  that  life  is  such  a  flitting 
shadow  on  this  earth,  that  it  is  but  the  lightning 
gleam  in  the  sky,  but  the  scintillation  of  a  spark  ? 
Upon  that  he  toiled  and  wrestled.  Could  he  rend 
that  mystery  and  see  the  eternal  bloom,  the  youth 


*  Buddha  said :  "As  the  great  universe  has  no  boundary,  and  the 
eight  quarters  of  Heaven  no  gateway,  so  Supreme  Reason  has  no- 
limits  ;  to  measure  boundless  space  would  be  difficult  indeed." 

Confucius  said  :  "  Look  up  at  it ;  it  is  higher  than  you  can  see  \ 
Bore  into  it ;  it  is  deeper  than  you  can  penetrate  !  Look  at  it  as  it 
stands  before  you  ;  suddenly  it  is  behind  you  ;  "  i.  e.,  it  cannot  be 
grasped. 

Lau-tsze  said  :  "  Looking  up,  you  cannot  see  the  summit  of  its. 
head  ;  go  behind  it,  you  cannot  see  its  back." 


150  BUDDHA. 

that  never  dies,  the  perennial,  time  no  more  — 
this  were  the  privilege,  the  boon  of  all  others. 
The  problem  remains  to  us  all  unsolved.  Old  age 
comes  to  us  as  fate ;  no  one  accepts  death  from 
choice.  Who  does  not  witness  with  pain  and  a 
measure  of  sorrow  the  furrows  come  and  deepen,  the 
sure  marks  of  advancing  age  and  decay?  Will  any 
explain  the  high  necessity  for  all  this  transiency  and 
inevitable  death  ?  Broadly  considered,  however,  the 
problem  will  probably  be  found  a  part  of  the  question 
of  time,  the  mystery  of  history,  of  birth  and  move- 
ment, to  be  be  solved  only  when  we  are  able  to 
read  the  enigma  of  being.  Since  the  river  flows  why 
must  there  not  be  emptying  into  the  sea  ?  We  may 
well  see  to  it  that  there  be  no  hastening  on  sensuous 
or  trivial  grounds,  and  withal  that  we  ourselves  acqui- 
esce, descend  into  the1  stream  and  make  the  inevitable 
wear  connect  with  work,  answer  some  solid,  worthy 
purpose.  We  have  seen  Buddha's  suggestion  as  to 
the  method  of  disarming  the  king  of  his  terrors,  of 
working  conquest  over  death.  Brief  hint  as  it  is, 
it  has  meaning,  and  intimates  the  proximate  solution. 
By  following  this  road  we  certainly  approach  the  true 
Nirvana. 

"  To  crowd  the  narrow   span  of  life 

With  wise  designs  and  virtuous  deeds  ; 

So  shall  we  wake  from  death's  dark  night, 

To  share  the  glory  that  succeeds." 


THE  DOCTRINE.  151 

The  very  defects  of  Buddhism — and  we  see  it  to 
have  had  a  morbid,  chilling  element  —  come  in  a 
sense  from  its  greatness.  It  was  so  penetrated  with 
thought  of  the  spiritual,  that  it  discerned  nothing  of 
the  seen  or  material,  saw  eternity  so  large  and  sole, 
that  there  was  no  place  for  time.  Life  shrinks  to 
nothing,  for  the  immense  beyond  overshadows,  anni- 
hilates it.  And  so  the  faith  was  renunciant,  solitary, 
mournful.  It  dwelt  on  the  dark  and  ghastly,  lacked 
the  element  of  appreciation  and  cheer.  How  it  dis- 
paraged all  things  of  time !  The  saints  were  to 
dwell  on  death,  dress  in  rags,  spend  nights  in  cem- 
eteries, meditate  on  the  inevitable  destruction  to  all. 
Earth  is  made  a  wilderness,  a  charnel-house,  a  dis- 
mal, mouldy  tomb.  Such  disparagements  of  life  and 
its  scenes,  of  the  human  body  and  its  enjoyments, 
one  could  never  wish  a  second  time  to  see,  as  they 
are  in  these  scriptures.  It  is  grim  and  ghastly.  We 
say  instinctively,  a  mistake,  a  blighting,  fatal  error. 
It  was  a  plunge  of  the  Oriental  thought  in  the  dim 
regions  of  Pluto  and  nothingness.  With  our  Western 
temperament  and  habits  we  cannot  abide  it.  But 
for  the  Eastern  soil  it  was  hardly  strange,  or  perhaps 
we  may  say,  absurd. 

Nor  is  it  in  this  character  quite  singular  or  cer- 
tainly sole  in  history.  We  need  not  go  far  from 
home  to  find  the  like  of  it.  In  our  current  religion 


152  BUDDHA. 

what  depreciation  and  disparagement  there  has  been, 
and  still  is,  of  life ;  such  sadness,  gloom,  denial  of  all. 
truth  and  beauty  here. 

"This  life's  a  dream,  an  empty  show." 

"Life  is  but  a  winter's  day, 
A  journey  to  the  tomb." 

"  The  brightest  things  below  the  sky 

Shine  with  deceitful  light, 
We  should  suspect  some  danger  nigh 
Where  we  possess  delight." 

"  Our  life,  how  poor  a  trifle  'tis, 
That  scarce  deserves  the  name." 

"The  cold  dreary  tomb, 

Sad  lot  of  all  living,  mortality's  doom." 

Such  gloomy  tone  runs  largely  in  the  popular 
hymnology.  We  celebrate  death. 

"  Who,  who  would  live  alway,  away  from  his  God  " — 

"  Ye  wheels  of  nature,  speed  your  course, 

Ye  mortal  powers  decay, 
Fast  as  ye  bring  the  night  of  death, 
Ye  bring  eternal  day." 

"Oh,  'tis  a  glorious  boon  to  die, 
This  favor  can't  be  prized  too  high." 

There  are  utterances  in  the  Old  Testament  hardly 
less  mournful  and  dreary  than  any  that  are  found 
in  the  Buddhistic  Canon. 


THE  DOCTRINE.  153 

"  Man  that  is  born  of  a  woman  is  of  few  days,  and  full 
of  trouble." 

"  He  cometh  forth  like  a  flower  and  is  cut  down,  he 
fleeth  also  as  a  shadow,  and  continueth  not." 

"  Thou  turnest  man  to  destruction,  and  sayest,  Return, 
ye  children  of  men." 

"  Thou  carriest  them  away  as  with  a  flood  ;  they  are  as 
a  sleep  ;  in  the  morning  they  are  like  the  grass  which 
groweth  up." 

"  In  the  morning  it  flourisheth  and  groweth  up,  in  the 
evening  it  is  cut  down  and  withereth." 

"  We  spend  our  years  as  a  tale  that  is  told." 

"  My  days  are  swifter  than  a  weaver's  shuttle." 

"The  days  of  our  years  are  three  score  years  and  ten, 
and  if  by  reason  of  strength  they  be  fourscore  years,  yet  is 
their  strength  labor  and  sorrow ;  for  it  is  soon  cut  off,  and 
we  fly  away."* 

What  choice  texts  to  read,  and  improved  so  well, 
who  does  not  remember,  on  funeral  occasions  !  The 
New  Testament  is  not  free  from  a  like  infirmity. 
We  hear  mention  of  the  body  as  "vile,"  and  the 
feeling  is  of  disesteem  for  this  life,  as  a  dreary 
pilgrimage,  a  dark  fate,  and  the  hope  is  centered  on 
the  world  beyond,  where  is  recompense  and  deliver- 
ance. It  is  plain  that  where  such  disparagements 
prevail  there  has  not  been  the  true  reading  either 
of  time  or  eternity.  It  would  seem  as  if  in  some 
of  the  old  ages  there  had  been  a  general  obliquity 


*  Job  14:  i,  2.    Psalm  90:  3,  5,  6,  9.    Job  7:  6.    Psalm  90:  10. 
II 


154  BUDDHA. 

of  vision,  an  amaurosis  indeed,  so  that  the  world  of 
existence  could  not  be  seen  or  known  in  just  sense 
at  all.  The  more  practical  and  healthful  Western 
mind  has  been  affected  with  it  almost  alike  deeply 
with  the  Eastern.  It  has  covered  earth  like  a  pall, 
and  the  obscuration,  as  we  see,  is  not  removed  yet. 
•  Buddha  may  have  been,  quite  likely  was  charged 
with  this  taint.  It  certainly  marred  the  completeness 
of  his  character.  He  was  of  the  dark  temperament, 
as  the  tradition  gives  him,  pensive  and  sombre  by 
nature,  so  penetrated  and  overcome  with  feeling  of 
the  infinite,  that  he  was  lost  to  sense  of  the  world 
of  the  seen.  "All  is  perishable,  all  is  miserable,  all 
is  void," — is  an  expression  that,  judging  by  the 
tradition,  must  frequently  have  passed  his  lips.  And 
yet,  before  we  strongly  condemn  another,  let  us  see 
to  it  that  we  be  subject  in  no  degree  to  a  like 
reproach. 

But,  again,  with  all  the  phenomenal,  the  empty 
and  unreal  —  and  at  hours  how  shadowy  it  all  seems 
— there  is  substance.  The  world  an  apparition,  a  very 
Sheol  above  ground,  it  is  also  real.  We  look  into 
the  faces  in  the  street  as  they  flit  by,  how  appari- 
tional  they  seem  ;  in  the  mellowed  light  of  the  past 
or  the  near  future,  what  are  they?  Shadow  of  a 
shade,  ghosts,  dreams  and  dreamers  all.  Flesh  is 
dust,  life  is  a  vapor.  And  yet  do  we  feel  there  is 


THE  DOCTRINE.  155 

something  far  more.  The  gaze  penetrates,  fixes  us. 
Here  are  vital  relations.  This  mortal  is  putting  on 
immortality,  it  is  immortal.  The  phenomenal  is  sub- 
stantial and  everlasting.  The  great  qualities  certainly 
abide,  and  love,  magnanimity,  devotion  are  beyond 
peradventure,  no  spectral  illusion.  These  faces  are 
radiant,  these  masks  reveal,  and  these  transient  shows 
beam  deep  with  meaning  as  of  the  being  of  God. 
And  so  the  friendships  and  the  friends  are  abiding, 
become  more  real  than  ever,  as  reading  through  the 
sensuous  and  illusive,  seeing  all  in  symbol,  we  pen- 
etrate to  substance,  the  inner  truth  of  all.  How 
grandly  sacred  becomes  to  us  a  person  !  We  are 
awe-stricken,  intensely  solemnized.  Before  us  a 
clothed  eternity,  a  Theophania,  clothed  and  also 
veiled ;  fleeting,  momentary,  and  also  everlasting  ; 
patent  to  sense,  and  also  utterly  inaccessible,  beyond 
the  power  of  hand  to  touch,  or  any  organ  to  know. 
How  fine  and  tender  these  relations ;  we  are  per- 
vaded with  restraint  and  reverence  ;  hushed  be  every 
passion  or  sensuous  feeling.  Who  could  think  of 
violating  in  smallest  point  this  temple  of  the  soul  ? 
Before  that  shrine  we  bow,  as  before  the  majestic 
Presence  of  Divinity. 

Buddhism,  doubtless,  was  guilty  of  short-coming 
here,  as  what  great  faith  of  the  world  has  not  been? 
All  have  stumbled  at  that  stumbling-stone.  None 


156  BUDDHA. 

have  yet  read  well,  none  attained  the  fine  interpre- 
tation. Pythagoras,  of  all  the  prophets  we  know, 
has  gone  farthest  in  essay  towards  accomplishment 
in  this  most  difficult  work.  Zoroaster  also  seems  to 
have  approximated  beyond  any  other  name  in  the 
East.  Buddhism  went  to  the  highest  heights  of 
negation,  bore  its  protest  powerfully  and  well,  but 
did  not  reach  the  affirmation.  Let  it  be  judged  in 
this  regard  fairly,  nothing  extenuated,  and  no  meas- 
ure of  condemnation  meted  out  to  it  that  is  not 
given  to  other  faiths  chargeable  with  like  deficiency. 
It  is  not  easy  to  say  of  its  renunciation,  speak- 
ing of  it  entire,  how  far  it  was  healthy  or  had 
healthy  elements,  and  how  far  of  morbid  tinge, 
whether  the  withdrawal  was  for  concentration  and 
conquest,  true  work,  or  for  escape.  There  is  much 
that  we  need  to  cast  aside  that  we  may  be  light- 
weighted  to  run  the  race  before  us.  Every  imped- 
iment, every  clog  we  must  away  with,  everything  that 
delays  us  from  climbing  swiftly  the  road  upward  to 
God.  There  are  stern  lessons  to  be  put  here,  and 
no  preacher  has  yet  laid  emphasis  on  them  too 
strongly.  But  there  is  sometimes  also  pusillanimity, 
desire  to  abdicate  our  relations,  to  withdraw  from 
the  post  of  life.  Existence  here  is  a  conflict,  'and 
it  requires  some  effort  even  to  live.  There  come 
hours  perhaps  to  all,  when  the  soul  prays,  "May  this 


THE  DOCTRINE.  157 

cup  pass  from  me,"  when  the  resolution  fails,  the 
mountain  looms  too  high,  and  it  asks  to  be  relieved ; 
it  would  to  naught  and  death.  Perhaps  the  Bud- 
dhistic doctrine  took  on  something  of  this  type,  we 
cannot  quite  say  at  this  distance.  But  we  can  see 
it  a  grave  mistake,  involving  a  totally  wrong  appre- 
hension of  life  from  the  bottom,  not  better  and  not 
worse,  as  appears,  than  the  current  conception  of 
salvation  and  heaven  as  implying  deliverance  and 
exemption  from  all  responsibilities  and  labors  that 
come  so  ungrateful  here.  The  deliverance  is  not  by 
withdrawal,  but  by  conquest.  Rest  itself  is  motion  ; 
repose,  the  perfection  of  action. 

Life  itself  is  such  a  battle,  there  is  no  escape 
but  by  victorious  doing.  Every  morning  summons 
us  to  a  new  conflict,  every  day  brings  new  surprises, 
requirements,  tasks  not  anticipated.  The  nails  will 
grow,  the  pores  will  transpire,  the  body,  as  also  the 
mind,  undergoing  constantly  transmutation.  There  is 
no  cessation  to  the  work  of  disintegrating ;  necessity 
there  is  for  perpetual  conflict,  resistance  and  struggle 
to  hold  against  the  flood  and  keep  good  by  renewals 
the  waste.  Each  individual  in  life  is  like  one  upon 
ocean  in  a  frail  and  leaky  bark,  to  be  kept  afloat 
only  by  incessant  exertion.  He  must  pump  or  die. 
All  that  we  have  acquired  or  possess  goes  continually 
to  deterioration,  enemies  on  all  hands  attack  it,  lay 


158  BUDDHA. 

waste,  and  there  must  be  unwearying  effort  to  repair 
and  maintain.  Eternal  vigilance  is  here  the  price 
of  every  liberty.  Whoso  would  abdicate  this  inces- 
sant struggle  must  go  out  of  his  own  body,  out  of 
existence  itself.  There  is  no  exemption  to  aught 
that  dwells  in  time. 

"Life's  no  resting  but  a  moving," — 

This  Buddhism  ought,  if  it  did  not,  to  have  seea 
and  made  good  recognition  of. 

For  here  we  touch  upon  great  issues,  the  vital 
questions  of  life  open  at  this  door.  The  deliverance 
is  by  exaltation  and  enlargement,  mastery  until  mo- 
tion is  perfect  rest,  and  our  activity  becomes  free, 
victorious,  spontaneous  as  the  breath.  There  is  to  be 
no  effort  and  no  weariness.  The  Nirvana  is  posses- 
sion; the  felicity,  life  more  and  more  expanded  and 
exalted.  That  we  feel  embarrassed  and  find  our- 
selves burdened  and  shackled,  is  proof  of  our  weak- 
ness. We  have  not  yet  become  seized  of  our  estate. 
When  we  shall  have  been,  we  shall  have  no  long- 
ing or  unrest,  nothing  can  be  hard  or  painful,  we 
shall  feel  never  for  a  moment  disposition  to  retire 
or  escape  any  work  or  requirement.  Conflict  shall 
transmute  into  conquest ;  in  all  the  circumstances 
about  us,  not  one  thing  unfriendly.  Without  •indiffer- 


THE  DOCTRINE.  159 

ference,  we  shall  yet  be  without  solicitude  or  any  pain. 
The  large  soul  loves  and  works  largely,  with  zest 
and  serene  joy.  Indisposition  for  labor,  shrinking 
from  its  trials  and  responsibilities  is,  perhaps,  always 
a  mark  of  impaired  vitality;  it  betokens  imbecility 
or  advancing  old  age.  Very  frequently  indeed  it  is 
in  close  connection  with  diseased  physical  condition, 
and  hardly  knows  cure  short  of  the  removal  of  that. 
Taking  in  view  the  high  mark,  how  few  of  us,  in- 
deed, reach  or  even  approach  the  period  of  twenty- 
one  !  Few  approximate  the  fine  golden  mean,  find 
the  true  reconciliation  and  marriage  of  seen  and  un- 
seen, undertaking  never  too  much,  neither  tov  little, 
never  indifferent  and  never  borne  away,  pursuing,  and 
keeping  and  deepening  perpetually  in  the  pursuit, 
the  inward  rest. 

There  may  fitly  be  discrimination  and  selection. 
All  are  not  anointed  to  every  work.  With  each  in- 
dividual there  should  be  deliberate  judgment  and 
choice  of  his  vocation.  There  is  also  gradation  and 
a  relativity  of  values,  and  there  may  be,  there  must 
be  preferences.  One  claim  stands  subordinate  to 
another.  Remembering  the  gradation  and  constant 
ascension,  we  should  keep  lower  subservient  and 
cheap  beside  the  higher.  There  may  be  setting  aside 
in  a  measure  of  the  grosser  tasks,  in  order  to  a 
larger  dedication  and  freer  performance  of  higher 


160  BUDDHA. 

work.  One  should  not  spend  his  life  in  doing, 
however  devotedly,  on  trifles  or  matters  of  inferior 
moment.  Every  day  we  are  called  to  weigh,  to 
take  the  comparative  measurements,  and  adjust  our- 
selves to  fresh  claims.  That  which  was  paramount 
and  commanding  yesterday  may  be  subordinate  to- 
day. Every  hour  frequently  shifts  values,  and  it 
requires  great  skill,  as  well  as  fine  judgment,  to 
make  the  instant  adjustments.  We  may  well  feel  ill 
at  ease  with  ourselves,  if  we  use  not  good  discrim- 
ination and  selection.  There  must  be  a  singleness 
and  soleness  in  all  effective  dedication,  a  shutting 
out  of  all  rivals  from  the  homage, .  the  devotion  of 
the  worshiper.  Much  may  be  excused  to  the  supe- 
rior genius  who  separates  himself  largely  from  the 
manual  labors,  that  he  may  do  finer  and  more.  And 
yet  none  may  withdraw  himself  utterly ;  every  man 
must  keep  burnished  and  bright  the  link  that  unites 
him  with  the  world  of  the  material  and  his  toiling 
fellows,  must  keep  alive  some  taste  of  the  labor  in- 
volved to  provide  for  the  primal  necessities.  With- 
drawal, in  this  sort,  will  vitiate  the  quality  of  his 
thought,  impair  the  bond  of  sympathy  through  which 
he  sees,  knows  and  enters  into  the  condition  of  men, 
and  be  very  apt  also  to  harm  his  character.  The 
more  exalted  one's  soul,  the  more  royally  and  in- 
spiringly  he  can  do.  All  tasks  may  transmute  into 


THE  DOCTRINE.  l6l 

pastime  and  delight  under  his  hand.  His  compan- 
ionship, on  any  field,  is  an  exhilaration.  No  man 
may  rightfully  forget,  while  in  the  body,  that  he  has 
a  body,  and  that  he  primarily  should  serve  and  feed 
his  own.  It  is  to  be  suspected  that  Buddhism  made 
its  grave,  its  fatal  short-coming  here.  This  blemish 
seems  to  mar  all  the  great  saintships  thus  far  in 
history.  The  monk,  with  staff  and  alms-bowl  ask- 
ing for  bread,  is  not  quite  honorable  or  manly  in 
the  midst  of  working  mankind.  He  that  is  least 
in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  greater  than  he.  He 
that  strives  to  sustain  truly  and  well  the  relation  to 
wife,  family,  society,  that  conquers  on  that  plane, 
writes  and  realizes  —  he  has  fought  a  higher  battle, 
and  stands  in  this  point  greater  than  all  renunciants. 
And  in  the  household  he  may  learn  lessons,  behold 
revelations  finer  and  deeper  than  Buddha  saw  in  his 
solitude. 

The  requirement  for  all  is  that  none  in  any  labor 
shall  become  absorbed  and  lost.  And  none  must 
abdicate  or  think  for  a  moment  of  retiring  from 
exertion.  Any  work,  however  coarse  or  ungrateful 
to  the  feeling,  is  infinitely  better  than  none.  All 
has  in  it  divine  elements,  and  may  be  transmuted 
to  beauty  and  song.  Do  something,  and  keep  mind 
and  heart  ever  alive.  "I  feed,"  says  Giordano 
Bruno,  "upon  the  high  endeavor."  There  is  no 


1 62  BUDDHA. 

rust  so  fatal  as  the  rust  of  inaction.       The  old   hymn 

hath   it 

.     '  only  while  we  pray,  we  live.' 

In  larger  and  stricter  sense,  only  while  we  act,  we 
live.  Even  old  age  may  be  animated  by  a  purpose, 
and  the  years  of  infirmity  may  —  should  be  —  occu- 
pied with  interests  and  work.  An  aim  is  antiseptic, 
it  resists  the  invasion  of  decay.  There  is  no  such 
anodyne  for  the  ills  and  pains  of  life  as  absorption 
of  the  attention  on  worthy  objects.  Each  one  should 
seek,  in  however  advanced  years,  when  the  hour 
comes,  to  die  in  the  harness.  "Give  me  a  great 
thought,  that  I  may  be  quickened  with  it  while  I 
die,"  said  the  expiring  Herder  to  his  attendant. 

And  even  the  secondary  or  inferior  may  become, 
for  the  time  being  at  least,  paramount,  and  the  man 
of  highest  spiritual  gift,  with  great  calling  to  teach, 
to  prophesy,  may  see  occasion  that  shall  imperatively 
summon  him  to  the  toilful  hand-laborer's  life,  a 
vocation  to  be  preferred  immeasurably  before  any 
mean  surrender  or  degradation.  He  will  find  that 
here,  too,  the  divine  enrichments  will  come,  that 
sootiest  toil  will  permit,  aye,  bring  inspirations,  great 
communion,  open  to  broadest  culture  and  enlarge- 
ment, that  no  favored  position  bought  at  price  of 
manly  erectness  can  begin  to  give.  There  are  ad- 
vantages purchased  at  fatal  price,  and  they  shrink  to 
dry  ashes  in  the  hand. 


VI. 

THE  FINE  PROBLEM. 

right  apprehension  of  this  world,  seeing  all 
J_  things  as  they  are,  in  their  duality  and  their 
oneness,  correlating  time  with  the  eternal,  keeping 
the  fact  and  the  true  subordination  —  this  is  ever  the 
question  of  questions,  the  one  problem  of  human 
life.  Buddhism  brings  us  to  it,  all  historic  studies, 
especially  of  faiths  and  institutions,  bring  us  to  it. 
This  once  solved,  the  human  being  has  done  his 
errand,  wrought  out  his  destiny  and  entered  into 
final  rest. 

It  is  a  very  old  question,  considered  and  experi- 
mented upon  through  all  the  ages.  How  use  the 
world,  never  abusing  it,  how  make  the  just  recog- 
nitions, avoiding  renunciation  and  escape  absorption, 
how  love  and  embrace  as  we  must,  but  never  set- 
ting too  much  stake  in  the  object  —  this  is  the 
severe  problem.  If  I  would  be  just,  making  full 
recognition  of  all  the  claims  of  the  outer  and  seen, 
relations  to  the  world  of  time,  I  fall  into  forgetful- 
ness  and  idolatry ;  if  I  would  guard  w%ll  and  keep 


1 64  BUDDHA. 

clear,  I  become  tainted  with  indifference,  a  renun- 
ciant,  a  withdrawn  and  ghastly  saint.  On  the  Scylla 
or  the  Charybdis  all  barks  go  to  wreck,  or  from 
the  one  to  the  other,  many  all  the  life  long  vainly 
toss  and  beat. 

The  outer  is  not  matter  of  indifference,  and  the 
material  condition,  the  physical  or  mundane  basis,  is 
not  to  be  despised  or  disregarded.  Outer  and  inner, 
corporeal  and  ethereal  are  clamped  together  in  this 
world  by  indissoluble  bonds.  Lower  leads  to  and 
culminates  in  higher,  and  there  is  no  higher  that 
(Joes  not  stand  and  rest  in  lower.  The  matter 
of  circumstances  in  reference  to  the  house,  the  ap- 
pointments of  the  home,  may  seem  trivial,  at  least 
unimportant,  and  yet  the  neglect  of  one  little 
particular  may  cost  a  life,  may  bear  to  the  shades 
irrecoverably  the  face  of  a  dear  one.  We  must 
distinguish  while  we  cannot  separate,  discriminate  and 
hold  fitly  in  place,  while  we  cannot  put  asunder. 
It  is  so  very  delicate  a  task,  speculatively  impossible, 
practically  most  difficult,  seeming  unattainable. 

Every  thing  must  be  put  upon  the  scales  and 
marked  at  its  just  value,  or  the  approximation,  and 
the  valuation  needs  to  be  revised  and  re-marked  con- 
tinually as  the  relations  change,  which  they  do  every 
day  and  every  hour.  There  must  be  constant  use 
of  the  balance,  and  ever-returning  reference  to  the 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  165 

absolute  standard.  How  the  values  change  accord- 
ing to  the  perspectives  we  look  through,  that  which 
seems  so  large  and  commanding  in  view  of  the  near 
present,  shrinking  into  insignificance  and  naught  in 
view  of  the  long  future.  And  •  there  is  variation  in 
the  standard  within  at  different  moments,  days  and 
periods  of  life ;  at  least  it  comes  out  some  times 
with  greater  distinctness,  is  more  pronounced,  clear, 
vital,  than  at  others.  And  the  highest  norm  is  at 
best  but  an  approximation,  only  a  comparatively  just 
scale ;  there  is  some  amaurosis  always,  points  of  in- 
sensibility in  the  nerve,  mirage  in  the  eye,  chromatic 
refractions.  At  the  highest  heights  the  vision .  is 
partial,  the  angels  are  chargeable  with  folly.  But  if 
we  advance,  there  are  constantly  new  corrections, 
finer  sensibilities  being  wakened  within  ourselves. 

The  puzzle  seems  to  be  to  avoid  excess,  to  keep 
to  the  limit.  The  way  is  slippery,  and  the  descent 
to  Avernus  so  easy.  There  is  such  constant  expan- 
sion to  the  wants,  or  what  we  conceive  to  be  our 
wants,  such  quick,  rising  intensity.  One  sets  out  to 
build  the  house ;  the  requirements  so  grow  and  mul- 
tiply, there  are  so  many  things  that  suggest,  it  were 
well,  aye,  necessary,  to  have  them  —  the  dimensions 
swell  ere  we  are  aware,  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
land  we  must  build  on,  or  the  purse  we  must  build 
from.  And  the  appointments,  the  furnishing  of  the 


1 66  BUDDHA. 

house  with  its  various  wares,  necessary,  convenient, 
elegant — how  they  enlarge  and  increase  till  literally 
there  is  no  end.  The  absorptions  are  so  great,  so 
subtle,  that  ere  one  is  aware,  he  is  borne  from  his 
feet  and  lost  in  the  vortex.  No  house  ever  gets 
finished,  no  estate  is  ever  large  enough,  and  no  ap- 
pointments quite  complete.  The  accumulation  of 
materials  in  the  course  of  years  —  how  it  swells  up! 
Be  careful  as  one  will,  the  collection  will  grow  and 
extend,  implements,  materials  for  use,  articles  of  the 
household,  shop,  or  farm  economy,  laid  aside,  not 
of  any  present  need,  yet  not  willingly  thrown  away. 
A  fire,  a  removal,  a  relentless  auction,  may  clear 
away  the  superfluous  stuifs,  but  in  absence  of  one 
or  another  of  -these,  what  steadily  increasing  bondage 
is  brought !  We  become  encased  in  a  hard  shell, 
layer  after  layer,  incrustations  that  bind  us  tight  and 
forbid  all  fluidity  and  freedom.  How  many  a  house- 
keeper becomes,  ere  she  is  aware,  held  and  kept  by 
her  house,  how  many  an  estate  owner,  owned  by 
his  estates!  And  so  the  multitudes  of  men  and 
women  in  our  society,  our  active  and  advanced 
civilization,  are  brought  under  deep  idolatries  and 
shackles  of  an  inextricable  bondage.  Is  there  no 
method  of  having  any  thing  without  being  possessed, 
chained  and  hampered  by  it?  Is  there  no  medium 
between  subjugation  and  renunciation ;  no  freedom 
but  in  being  a  sans  culotte  ? 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  167 

*  Habitude,  the  accustomed  ways  and  surroundings, 
have  power  for  ill  as  well  as  good,  perhaps  more 
than  for  good.  Use  and  wont  confine  and  enslave 
us.  We  grow  to  the  habitual,  the  scenes  and  expe- 
riences of  the  every-day  life,  till  we  become  identified 
with  them,  they  are  a  part  of  ourselves.  We  cannot 
break  from  them,  are  fastened,  incarcerated,  unable 
to  move  at  the  call  of  the  spirit.  The  languid 
nature  cries,  "Let  me  first  go  and  bury  my  father." 
I  see,  not  without  dread,  the  power  of  this  element, 
especially  as  the  years  advance,  and  the  enthusiasm, 
elasticity  and  warm  courageous  spirit  of  youth  have 
\  diminished.  We  incline  to  the  accustomed,  to  rest 
in  what  we  have,  unwilling  to  break  away  and  forth 
to  new  fields  and  larger  work.  Every  day  adds  a 
cord  to  the  fastening,  and  erewhile  the  toil  becomes 
so  strong  we  cannot  possibly  break  it.  Every  man 
as  he  enters  age,  tends  to  become  contracted,  con- 
servative, a  fogy.  The  blood  retires  more  inward  to 
the  heart,  he  is  less  disposed  to  exertion,  to  aggres- 
sive forward  movement.  His  cry  is,  "Let  alone,  let 
be,  no  disturbance,  no  disruption."  He  is  glued  to 
his  objects;  when  they  are  taken,  like  Laban  he  has 
lost  his  gods.  Only  as  he  keeps  his  blood  warm 
and  quick,  his  pulse  beating  with  the  life  of  the 
world,  can  he  escape. 

Our    relations    to    the    social   involve    us   in   grave 


1 68  BUDDHA. 

exposure.  How  these  faces  write,  this  presence  ,of 
the  dear  ones  of  the  household,  the  friendly  circle  — 
what  a  power  it  has  to  touch  and  affect  us  to  the 
quick !  The  impressions  are  so  vital,  they  enter  the 
very  life-centers.  All  unconsciously  we  are  borne 
away  with  a  wild  idolatry.  We  identify  the  form 
with  the  substance,  the  expression  with  the  reality, 
we  forget  the  symbolism.  A  single  experience  may 
be  fraught  with  danger,  the  glance  of  the  eye, 
the  beam  in  the  look,  the  word  which  is  music  to 
the  ear — how  it  may  carry  us  captive  and  bear 
away.  I  note  with  awe  sometimes  and  shrinking 
fear  these  fascinations,  the  allurements,  the  fine,  trans- 
porting charms  of  the  home  circle,  and  apprehend 
lest  they  become  too  dear,  too  essentially  indispensable 
in  their  habitual  manifestation,  to  the  soul's  enjoy- 
ment. All  unconsciously  our  hearts'  loves  are  en- 
twined there  so  deep,  we  live  in  and  of  them,  and 
cannot  bear  separation.  But  the  separation  comes, 
as  it  must,  ever  has  and  ever  will,  and  we  are  bereft 
indeed.  Our  lode-stars  are  gone,  the  light  of  our 
life  blotted  out.  Death  strips  us  of  our  delights, 
and  we  sit  in  darkness,  saddened,  alone. 

And  yet  there  is  a  medium  line  to  be  hit ;  we 
are  individuals  and  are  each  an  incarnated  spirit, 
breathing  and  dwelling  in  time,  and  some  garments 
we  must  have,  we  cannot  go  naked  in  this  world. 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  169 

We  have  relations  and  dependencies,  we  must  con- 
verse and  commune.  How  mingle  and  still  hold 
superiority,  how  recognize  and  honor,  warm  to  and 
love,  and  get  upon  us  never  a  trace  of  a  shackle? 
We  want  the  wise  teacher  who  shall  elucidate,  show 
us  the  reconciliation  and  true  deliverance.  Repose 
in  action,  repose  that  acts  and  activity  that  reposes — 
is  the  need  of  every  day  and  every  hour  of  every 
life. 

In  the  old  Vedic  Hymns,  early  almost  apparently 
as  the  dawn  of  any  civilization  among  men,  any 
social,  tamed,  human  life,  going  back  to  the  days 
when  agriculture  was  hardly  born,  settled  life  in 
houses  just  beginning  or  young,  man  poor  almost 
as  a  naked  savage,  existence  a  perpetual  struggle, 
such  as  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  now,  we  find  in- 
vocations to  the  superior  powers  and  forces  of 
nature,  for  supply  of  the  most  elemental  wants. 
Give  us  possessions,  food,  shelter,  family,  and  con- 
tinued life  here,  O  Indra!  We  crave  remembrance 
in  the  body,  in  the  imperative  resistless  needs  of 
our  physical  being.  The  staple  of  these  old  hymns, 
deeply  religious  as  they  are,  is  still  grossly  material, 
showing  man  glued  to  the  earth,  groveling  amid  its 
absorptions,  in  the  first  stages  only  of  his  birth  into 
consciousness  of  the  higher.  His  eyes  begin  to  open 
upon  the  great  realities,  he  is  filled  with  wonder, 
•  12 


1 70  BUDDHA. 

with  aspiration,  superlative  longing,  but  the  hard 
necessities  encase  him,  and  he  falls  back  ever  and 
anon  to  the '  stern  needs  that  press  him  without,  the 
measureless  distance  that  divides  him  from  the  desired 
and  the  indispensable  material  possession.  Man  an 
infant,  a  naked  child,  exposed,  beset,  hampered,  and 
in  life-and-death  struggle  with  enemies,  unable  to 
overcome  his  pressures,  ravished,  but  too  weak  to 
rise  to  the  upper  airs  and  dwell  in  exaltation  and 
repose — this  is  the  spectacle  presented  to  us  in  that 
early,  almost  primitive  stage  of  human  history. 

We  stand  now  at  distance  of  forty,  or  perhaps  more 
centuries  from  that,*  the  struggles,  advances  and 
enlargements  of  so  many  ages  behind  us,  man  the  heir 
-of  all  the  attainment  of  this  past,  risen  from  naked 
savagery  to  a  clothed  and  comparatively  fine  civiliza- 
tion—  and  yet  have  we  grown  much  from  that  old 
^condition?  All  abroad  the  same  cry  goes  up  contin- 
ually :  Give  us  possessions,  O  Heaven  !  We  want 
means,  wealth,  property  and  power,  an  emancipated, 
protected  and  favored  life.  What  emphasis  upon  the 
food  to  eat,  the  clothes  to  wear,  in  one  view  essen- 
tial condition,  but  as  held  largely,  merest  incident, 


*  Bunsen  says  the  oldest  of  the  Vedas,  the  purely  popular,  cannot 
be  younger  than  3000  B.  C.  See  Max  Miiller's  Chips,  Vol.  III.,  p. 
471;  also  Bunsen's  Egypt,  Vol.  V.,  p.  562. 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  1 71 

and  even  fatal  snare.  Such  constant  occupation  with 
the  material  relations,  perpetual  study  and  labor  for 
change  and  advantage  and  power  here.  In  any  true 
rendering  in  invocation  of  the  absorbing  desires  and 
effort  of  to-day,  hardly  less  prominent  place  would 
be  covered  by  the  prayers  for  possession  and  physical 
supply,  than  we  find  in  those  old  rude  petitions  of 
the  early  Aryan  ancestors.  With  all  the  wealth,  the 
enhanced  comfort  and  emancipation,  the  goal  is  still 
unneared,  and  we  may  say  even  unsighted.  Man 
still  grovels  on  the  earth,  unable  to  rise  and  take 
the  freedom,  the  great  repose  that  is  his  birthright. 
It  is  yet  the  dispensation  of  the  first  man,  of  the 
earth,  earthy. 

The  same  character  is  stamped  upon  our  public 
civilization.  So  patent,  it  is  obvious  to  all  eyes. 
The  material  element  seems  excessive,  so  dominant 
as  to  make  deformity  and  distortion.  Such  eager- 
ness, haste  of  work,  rush  and  impatience  after  per- 
formance and  outer  conquest.  Visit  any  of  the  marts 
of  trade,  routes  of  commerce,  shops  of  business,  and 
you  see  everywhere  the  fevered  life,  gigantic  move- 
ments that  would  stir  from  their  places  the  very 
heavens^  immense  enterprises  carried  forward  to  aggran- 
dize and  fill  with  power.  The  brute  forces  of  nature 
are  commanded  into  service,  and  steam,  electricity, 
heat,  winds,  are  made  to  do  the. bidding  of  man  in 


172  BUDDHA. 

this  quest.  Probably  there  is  not  a  force  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  in  the  atmosphere,  or  the  stars, 
that  will  not  be  captured  and  tamed  to  this  use. 
Human  life  is  rapid,  breathless  with  ambition  and 
speed  in  all  the  incidents  of  outer  wealth  and  achieve- 
ment. Look  at  the  thoroughfares,  and  you  see  the 
eager-  rush  of  everybody  to  go  abroad,  to  traverse  the 
planet,  myriads  whirling  on  with  the  speed  of  the 
wind,  and  in  perpetual  stream  —  no  rest  and  no  goal. 
You  are  impelled  to  interrogate,  Wherefore?  Whence 
do  all  these  come,  and  whither  are  they  bound  ? 
Was  there  ever  the  like  thirst  and  universal  move- 
ment before?  The  brain  of  man  is  in  constant  gesta- 
tion, travailing  perpetually  with  inventions  and  skilled 
devices  for  subduing  time,  annihilating  the  space 
separations,  and  conquering  to  his  feet  the  world. 

The  same  dream  of  possession  seems  to  haunt  the 
scientific  domain,  the  same  thirst  and  unrest,  and  the 
glasses  are  armed  with  ever-increasing  power,  that 
they  may  see  to  the  end  of  finitude,  probe  and 
explore  all  the  height  and  depth  of  the  unmeasured 
universe.  Never  was  there  such  hope  and  assured 
expectation,  such  tension  and  energizing  of  every 
faculty.  Not  unnaturally,  perhaps,  is  the  head  dazed 
with  the  great  successes,  wonderful  of  late,  beyond 
any  parallel  hitherto,  and  the  intoxication  comes  in 
that  dreams,  that  this  daring,  conquering  intellect  of 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  173 

man   is   on   the   eve  of  piercing   and    laying   open  the 
final   secret  of  secrets. 

Viewing  from  one  point  of  observation,  we  may- 
say  that  there  is  fate,  destiny  here.  It  must  needs 
be  so.  There  are  conditions  yet  to  be  fulfilled, 
certain  preliminary  terms  to  a  true  spiritual  mastery, 
that  must  be  answered,  and  the  race  is  moving  on, 
in  large  part  unconsciously,  to  work  an  indispensable 
mission,  to  smooth  and  make  straight  the  way  for 
the  coming  of  the  Most  High.  Man  is  not  yet 
free  enough  on  the  physical  plane,  he  is  the  creature 
of  stern  necessities  that  bind  him,  too  preoccupied, 
absorbed,  harried,  too  much  still  in  the  exposure 
and  lack  of  primitive  savagery,  to  be  able  to  com- 
mand himself  to  withdrawal  and  inner  repose.  See 
what  exposure  in  the  person,  what  bankruptcy  of 
health  and  life,  what  premature  decay,  what  sorrows, 
what  heavy  odds  against  which  perpetually  to  con- 
tend !  What  a  tragedy  is  life  all  about  us,  what  an 
unceasing,  relentless  battle,  what  clouds,  what  sadness 
visit!  There  is  still  sternest  destitution  and  need, 
the  requirement  to  fight  and  to  wrest  whatever  we 
would  win ;  much  also  that,  with  all  the  bravery  of 
fight,  we  are  unable  to  get.  The  great  battle  with 
weakness,  want,  with  cold,  disease  and  sharp  pres- 
sures is  still  to  be  done,  ere,  as  would  seem,  the 
higher  life  is  to  any  large  extent  possible.  Destiny 


174  BUDDHA. 

has  charged  its  ministers  with  this  performance,  and 
the  word  shall  surely  accomplish  that  whereunto  it 
was  sent. 

Sad  enough  it  is  to  see  of  some,  that  they  ap- 
pear so  delicately  constituted,  there  is  such  lack  of 
just  poise  in  their  temperament,  such  over-proportion 
even  of  the  finer,  the  spiritual,  that  they  are  unfitted 
to  bear  the  rude  shocks  of  the  experiences  of  time, 
and  so  go  down  broken  and  crushed,  summoned 
out  of  life  ere  they  have  been  able  to  read  and  get 
its  lessons.  The  flower  was  too  delicate  for  the 
winds  that  blew,  and  the  storms  that  sometimes 
come,  and  could  not  therefore  fill  the  measure  of  its 
days  and  reach  its  full  perfection.  Nature  was  too 
harsh  for  this  sensitive  plant;  the  earth  itself  seems 
still  rude  and  in  a  sort  sinister  to  human  life.  A 
withering  breath  comes  and  destroys.  Of  others, 
too,  we  must  feel  that  they  are  so  charged  with 
down-weighing  infirmities,  some  bias,  some  torpor  or 
perversion,  that  amid  all  tuitions  of  experience,  they 
never  will  attain,  never  reach  good  birth,  but,  as  a 
vulgar  phrase  hath  it  expressively,  they  "die  a-bornin. " 
Both  these  short-comings  or  miscarriages  are  very 
tragic,  and  long  ages  of  thought  and  careful  toil 
must  be  passed,  ere  they  shall  occur  no  more. 

It    is    to   be    hoped,    indeed,   that    some    day,    not 
distant,   will    witness   material   reduction    in    the    stern, 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  175 

exacting  manual  labors  that  lie  to  all  honest  hands. 
The  pressure  and  necessary  absorptions  are  great. 
Large  portion  of  our  waking  hours  in  a '  climate,  so 
rigorous  as  ours,  where,  emphatically,  for  most  part, 

"The  winter  consumes  what  the  summer  doth  yield," 

must  be  given,  as  we  now  are,  to  the  meat  that 
perisheth,  to  food,  shelter,  providence.  We  have 
begun  a  little  on  some  planes  to  organize,  to  asso- 
ciate and  make  distribution  of  the  labors,  but  largely 
we  are  unorganized,  unequipped,  and  are  laboriously 

doing   at  the    hardest,   with    muscle    and    nerve,   what 

% 
some  day  shall  be  taken  up  and  performed  more  than 

willingly  by  forces  that  lie  wild  and  sporting  untamed 
about  us.  We  are  still  in  the  old  stone  age,  the 
finer  metallic  ages  yet  unborn.  The  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  until  now,  waiting 
to  be  delivered.  The  men  of  science  to-day  are 
performing,  in  part  probably  unknown  to  themselves, 
an  important,  an  indispensable  mission  in  the  atten- 
tion they  are  calling  to,  and  the  light  they  are 
to  bring  upon,  a  side  of  human  life  all  too  much 
ignored  and  neglected  hitherto. 

But  again,  taking  our  stand  on  the  plane  of  the 
moral,  we  can  see  that  great  lessons  are  to  be  read 
and  appropriated  even  now.  Are  we  under  no  in- 
toxication, do  we  never  exaggerate,  put  things  out  of 


176  BUDDHA. 

proportion,  worship  never  the  eidolon  j>  Are  there  no 
unrest,  no  anxieties,  extravagant,  illusive  hope  and 
inordinate  pursuits?  Do  we  always  keep  to  the  fine 
maxim,  ' '  Feslina  lente, "  find  constantly  repose  in  our 
action  here?  It  would  seem  that  the  intoxication 
of  the  quest  has  become  so  great  that  we  have  for- 
gotten ourselves,  lost  the  meaning  of  our  object,  and 
are  unable  to  recall  our  grey-hounds  and  pause,  even 
when  the  chase  is  done  and  the  game  is  brought. 
We  have  gotten  to  the  goal  we  started  to  win,  but 
our  dizzy  eyes  see  not  that  it  is  any  goal.  Life  is 
full  of  these  oblivions,  ends  forgotten  and  ignored 
even  when  they  have  come  into  our  hands.  There 
need  stern  admonitions  here,  even  though  they  should 
come  by  the  severe  surgery  of  excision,  utter  renun- 
ciation. All  are  too  much  imprisoned,  excited  and 
absorbed.  We  are  cumbered  with  much  serving.  There 
must  be  peace,  ceasing  from  care  and  solicitudes,  the 
harrying  of  unrest.  The  kingdom  of  deliverance  we 
must  enter  now. 

The  design  seems  in  our  present  condition  to  be 
largely  discipline,  and  through  that,  strength.  The 
creature  was  born  subject  to  vanity,  to  limitations 
and  illusions,  that  he  might  attain,  gain  rest  by 
effort,  acquisition,  and  also  by  renunciation.  Freedom 
we  are  to  find  in  the  midst  of  our  shackles,  break- 
ing many,  and  of  others  discovering  how  insignificant 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  177 

they  are,  how  little,  indeed  naught,  they  needs  must 
hamper  us.  There  appears  but  one  door  to  the 
upper  realm,  and  that  is  exertion  and  conquest.  It 
seems  the  fiat  of  fate,  covering  all  the  future  possi-  • 
bilities,  that  man  can  enjoy  only  as  he  shall  have 
earned;  he  must  do,  to  be  able  to  enter  into  rest. 
In  high  sense,  too,  the  enjoying  is  the  earning, 
and  the  resting  the  working.  In  the  present  stage 
and  under  the  present  relations,  there  may  be  en- 
franchisement, peace  ;  who  shall  say  they  may  not  be 
perfect?  Certainly  there  is  great  enlargement  and 
repose  in  learning  what  we  may  do  without,  where 
we  may  enter  upon  inner  substance,  and  find  mean- 
ings and  nourishment  we  had  never  suspected  before. 
Man  thus  becomes  a  sovereign ;  though  he  seems  a 
bondsman,  a  manacled  slave,  he  is  possessor  and 
lord  of  all.  The  two  spheres  of  life  so  interlap,  or 
rather  meet,  unite,  and  run  together  without  seam 
or  suture,  their  mingling  is  so  perfect,  that  it  is  not 
easy  often  to  determine  where  the  passive  virtues 
properly  end,  and  the  active  begin,  or  vice  versa. 
The  attainment  of  this  were  the  perfect  knowledge, 
making  the  supreme  haven.  The  one  side  or  the 
other  comes  more  prominently  to  view  in  the  various 
relations,  and  yet  both  are  involved  in  every  rela- 
tion, and  in  the  performance  of  every  act.  Devotion 
and  surrender,  pursuit  on  the  one  side,  yielding  up 


178  BUDDHA. 

on  the  other,  is  the  necessity  of  every  hour.  To* 
have  the  flow  perfect,  the  liberty  and  the  allegiance 
absolute,  no  division  and  no  unrest  in  the  soul,  but 
unbroken  peace — this  is  the  art  of  arts. 

In  the  large,  the  problem  before  us  is  a  very 
broad  and  far-reaching  one,  for  it  involves  the  con- 
sideration of  the  mysteries,  the  reconciliation  of  eter- 
nity and  time.  What  we  have  touched  upon  is  but 
one  phase,  and  the  more  obvious  and  almost  super- 
ficial, of  our  great  question.  How  shall  we  recon- 
cile, how  eliminate  the  inferior  factor,  or  rather 
sublimate  and  absorb  it,  pouring  it  for  exaltation 
and  strength  even,  into  the  higher?  How  blend  the 
two  spheres,  and  put  the  outer  and  the  seen  per- 
fectly into  the  unseen?  Toiling  ages  work  upon  it, 
yet  it  goes  unanswered,  unsolved  forever. 

"  A  rampart  breach  is  every  day 
Which  many  mortals  are  storming, 
Fall  in  the  gap  who  may, 
Of  the  slain  no  heap  is  forming." 

The  question  remains,  the  subtle  riddle  of  phi- 
losophy, the  hidden,  inaccessible  mystery  of  being. 
Patent  and  radiant  to  all,  quenching  every  other 
sight  and  fact,  and  yet  so  transcendent  it  will  not 
be  found  or  touched.  No  sage  or  seer  has  yet 
offered  us  any  elucidation.  We  catechise  all  mas- 
ters, none  has  framed  answer;  little  hints  touching 


THE   FINE  PROBLEM.  179 

some  rim  or  remote  edge  of  our  question,  pregnant 
intimations  of  the  direction  in  which  alone  the  true 

• 

discovery  may  be  found  —  these  are  all  that  the  wealth 
of  any  history  can  give  us.  The  true  elucidator, 
solver,  would  be  a  sage  far  wiser  than  Plato,  a  saint 
higher,  diviner  than  Jesus.  But  it  is  idle  to  specu- 
late, ungracious  to  seem  even  to  complain  that  we 
have  not  received  the  impossible.  Such  prerogative 
cannot  be  delegated  for  any  soul  to  another.  All 
that  can  be  given  is  feeble  hint,  dim,  distant  inti- 
mation of  this  unseen,  this  one 

'  Unspeakable,  who  sits  above  these  heavens, 
To  us  invisible,  or  dimly  seen, 
In  these  his  lower  works.' 

One  or  another  in  the  long  ages  has  read  a  note 
in  this  celestial  music,  has  deciphered  a  syllable  or 
two  in  this  scripture  of  untold  wisdom.  But  the 
reader '  that  shall  penetrate  and  translate  it  all,  ren- 
dering into  our  vernacular,  the  performer  that  shall 
bring  to  our  ears  the  divine  harmonies,  the  eternal 
anthem  of  the  heavens  —  the  generations  wait  him 
evermore  in  vain.  Not  Jews  only,  but  mankind, 
look  for  such  Messias  that  should  come.  "'My 
religion,"  said  Lao  Tsze,  so  wisely,  "consists  in 
thinking  the  inconceivable'  thought,  in  going  the 
impassable  way  in  speaking  the  ineffable  word,  in 
doing  the  impossible  thing." 


I  So  BUDDHA. 

The  attainment  lying  in  character,  the  approxi- 
mations must  be  very  partial,  remote  with  the  best. 
The  wisest  among  us  outgrow  the  illusions  but  very 
gradually.  The  intoxications  have  affected  all  heads, 
the  dark  Lethe  waters  have  been  drunk  by  all,  and 
we  are  smitten  with  forgetfulness,  not  so  much  of 
the  life  in  time,  but  of  the  life  in  eternity.  We 
outgrow,  one  after  another,  our  day  dreams  and 
exaggerations,  and  get  our  feet  upon  the  more  solid 
ground,  see  things  in  their  proportion.  But  hardly 
at  all  do  we  find  any  ultimate  ;  world  opens  within 
world  continually,  and  there  is  ever  the  transcendent 
and  beyond.  Oldest  and  wisest  are  but  children  of 
a  larger  growth,  and  as  to-day  we  look  back  upon 
the  illusions  of  the  early  years,  wondering  the  intoxi- 
cations could  have  been  so  easy  and  complete,  so, 
erewhile,  we  shall  doubtless  recur  with  the  same 
surprise  to  the  dreams  and  enchantments  of  our 
seemingly  now  adult  life.  Are  we  not  all  in  the 
stages  of  childhood,  all  undergoing,  frequently  enough 
with  much  pain,  the  processes  of  birth,  and  the  eyes 
widest  seeing  not  yet  ripened  to  good  vision  ? 

What  humility  and  what  patience  with  all  others 
we  ought  to  learn  in  this  view !  Pythagoras  said, 
''Esteem  it  a  great  part  of  a  good  education,  to  be 
able  to  bear  with  the  want  of  it  in  others."  Prob- 
ably at  the  end,  or  rather  in  the  beyond,  we  shall 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  l8l 

find  that  we  have  continued  throughout  idolaters, 
inebriated,  exaggerating  our  own  life  even,  worshiping 
unduly  what  has  seemed  essential  condition  to  all 
existence  and  possession.  It  also  shall  be  seen 
unessential,  but  an  incident,  not  vitally  touching  the 
inner  elements  of  cur  being. 

And  within  that  great  illusion,  how  many  minor 
illusions  find  place,  and  bear  us  captive  continually. 
So  instinctively  the  heart  fastens  here  and  there, 
and  regards  a  thing  as  vital  and  follows  it,  or,  balked 
and  thwarted,  grieves  over  the  disappointment,  forget- 
ting the  Nirvana,  forgetting  that  the  resources  of  the 
universe  are  infinite,  and  that  to  the  real  soul  there 
can  come  no  loss,  no  sorrow.  Our  occupations, 
our  life  designs,  how  inseparable  from  the  absolute 
ends  they  seem  to  us,  how  we  cling  to  and  invest 
in  them,  how  we  are  pained  or  disheartened  by  their 
interruption  or  disappointment !  Passes  there  a  day 
with  any  of  us  in  which  the  sun  does  not  undergo 
some  partial  obscuration,  in  which  we  are  not  dazed 
or  drugged  and  lost  in  forgetfulness  ?  The  reality 
is  a  Proteus,  taking  infinity  of  shapes  and  no  shape, 
ever  eluding  and  beckoning  on. 

Circumstance  is  made  indifferent,  the  infinite  pos- 
sibilities all.  Art  thou  called  being  a  slave,  said 
Paul,  care  not  for  it.  We  must  not  be  thwarted, 
not  affected  even,  by  our  incidents,  must  hold  to  the 


1 82  BUDDHA. 

purpose,  must  execute  the  purpose,  visibly,  or  at 
least  inwardly,  in  spite  of  every  untoward  surrounding. 
It  is  high  attainment  so  to  dwell  in  perfect  poise, 
that  there  shall  come  no  ruffling  or  unrest,  befall 
what  may.  You  pursue  your  thought;  the  aim  is 
noble,  commanding.  It  is  pleasant  that  the  visitors 
come,  that  the  inspirations  flow  and  the  mind 
be  filled,  illumined,  propelled  as  by  sovereign,  all- 
mastering  power.  But  the  visitors  may  not  come, 
the  mind  sit  barren,  uninspired,  and  the  hour  sacredly 
dedicated,  yield  nothing.  To  dwell  in  repose  there 
also,  to  rest  where  you  cannot  act,  acquiesce  where 
you  cannot  obtain,  feel  content  and  assured  even 
there,  satisfied  that  this  also  is  well,  is  best  —  it  needs 
strength,  self-command  for  that. 

It  helps'  us  on  in  our  way,  to  extend  the  period, 
to  fix  our  thought  on  the  perennial.  We  need  to 
lengthen  out  the  perspective.  We  see  that  things 
are  not  what  they  seem,  that  a  larger  range  reduces 
them  more  into  just  proportions.  Past  will  bloom 
still  present,  present  fades,  and  beams  in  its  inner 
realities  alone  upon  us  as  past,  future  comes  present, 
and  we  dwell  in  the  eternal  now.  Hardly  can  we 
be  pierced  by  any  sorrow,  for  in  the  world  we  inhabit 
death  and  bereavement  cannot  enter.  We  cannot  be 
affected  by  any  ebriety,  for  the  waters  have  been 
purged  of  all  their  intoxicating  qualities. 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  183 

The  doctrine  of  fate  also  has  its  uses.  It  is  well 
tfo  remember  that  what  is  best,  will  be.  There  is 
election,  a  decree  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
;and  come  what  will,  try  what  may,  I  shall  doubtless 
have  and  find  what  I  was  destined  for.  Nothing 
,can  pluck  out  of  that  hand.  Unsatisfactory  occu- 
pation, absorbing,  uncongenial  business  engrossment, 
place  seeming  not  the  right  one  for  the  capacity, 
not  congruous  or  friendly,  surroundings  and  position 
all  awry  —  these  cannot  thwart  or  prevent  that  the 
actual  destiny  be  realized.  All  can  be  transmuted, 
-and  made  not  hindrances,  but .  doorways  and  aids  to 
help  us  on  to  God.  And  it  is  probable  that  at  the 
end,  all  our  life  will  be  seen  to  have  been  presided 
over  by  a  beneficent  fate.  All  will  have  been  spent 
amid  disappointments  and  also  surprises,  we  seeming 
to  ourselves  to  be  habitually  balked  of  our  wishes, 
consigned  and  compelled  to  work  and  experiences  not 
chosen,  not  grateful,  praying  sometimes  that  this  cup 
may  pass  from  -us,  to  awaken  at  length  to  see  that  he 
whom  we  sought  was  in  this  place,  but  we  knew  it 
not,  that  the  great  possession  was  always  accessible, 
at  hand,  and  that  whatever  we  have  failed  to  realize 
was  by  our  own  fault,  aye,  that  we  have  been  led 
by  a  way  that  we  knew  not,  and  have  realized,  have 
plucked  wisdom  and  felicity  more  than  we  thought 
.or  imagined  at  the  time.  So  the  kingdom  of  the 


1 84  BUDDHA. 

j 
skies    is    patent    to   all,    and    every   relation,    however 

humble  or  hard  with  trial,  permits,  nay,  favors, 
nay,  effects,  the  growth  of  the  heavenly  fruits  and 
joys. 

Doubtless,  a  considerable  part  of  our  embarrass- 
ment has  its  ground  in  our  constitution,  the  very 
conditions  of  our  being.  We  are  in  limits,  are  our- 
selves limited.  The  desires,  the  dissatisfactions  we 
feel,  come  essentially  not  of  this  or  that  particular 
type  of  circumstance,  any  special  trammel  or  hamper 
of  condition,  but  of  our  nature.  These  thirsts  within 
us  are  to  be  slaked  in  the  infinite  ocean  alone. 
While  we  are  short  of  that,  there  will  always  be  some 
sense  of  lack  or  pain.  We  are  not  greatly  to  blame 
any  special  condition  we  are  in,  for  what  belongs 
essentially  to  finitude.  Withal  we  must  surrender 
and  renounce  at  some  points,  or  we  cannot  realize 
anywhere.  Life  requires  a  concentration;  it  is  a 
spark,  a  focal  point,  a  determinate  aim.  This  is 
one  of  the  essential  laws  or  terms  of  a  personal 
existence.  The  high  art  is  to  adjust  one's  self  finely 
to  the  possibilities,  to  yield  what  cannot  be  kept  and 
carried,  and  have  the  perfect  peace  still  unbroken. 
When  we  have  taken  survey  and  entered  upon  devo- 
tion to  all  our  possible,  when  we  have  surrendered 
without  pain,  with  alacrity  and  solemn  joy,  whatever 
is  impracticable  or  not  commanding  or  worthy,  and 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  185 

withal    wed    ourselves    to    interest    and    action  —  then 
we   take   our   inheritance    and    enter   into    life. 

There  shall  be  no  abdication  of  the  normal  rela- 
tions. The  thing  sought  shall  be  appropriation, 
absorbing  and  exalting  all  the  lower  into  the  higher. 
We  do  not  want  negation.  Nothing  normal  must 
be  dropped  or  lost.  The  gospel  of  renunciation  has 
been  preached  powerfully  enough  in  our  own  time 
by  Thoreau.  None  could  urge  its  claims  writh  more 
eloquence  and  force  than  he.  Earlier  ages  have 
witnessed  like  confessors  adjuring  to  forsake  and  re- 
nounce, bearing  their  testimony  against  dwelling  and 
mingling  in  a  world  unworthy.  It  has  been  a 
weighty,  an  indispensable  word.  It  has  admonished 
of  things  much  neglected  and  to  which  all  should 
take  heed.  It  has  reminded  us  of  our  excesses  and 
our  bondage.  But  the  world  to-day  needs  more  and 
larger,  the  inclusive  affirmation.  It  looks  for  the 
synthesis,  the  great  reconciliation.  This  is  the  at- 
one-ment  for  which  the  ages  have  been  preparing, 
^ons  of  time,  untold  centuries  of  endeavor,  of 
sacrifice  and  suffering,  are  cheap  that  might  ripen  a 
period  for  its  advent,  its  realization. 

Partial  as  it  is,  the  past  is  pregnant  with  hint 
and  needed  incitement.  There  are  fingers  all  along 
in  history  that  point  the  way.  There  have  been 

13 


1 86  BUDDHA. 

incarnations,     souls    in    flesh    that    have    brought    the 
heavens   to   the   earth,  and   constrained    men    to    say, 
"Immanuel,   God   with    us."      How  gladly  would  we 
listen  to  the  faintest  word  from    Buddha,   from   Jesus,  , 
showing   that   he   too   had  weighed   the  vast   problem, 
and    held   some    careful    conclusions   thereon,  that   he 
had  wrought  upon  it,  and  *reached  a  never  so  remote 
approximation  !      Very   deep   is   the   debt   we   owe    to 
the    Oriental,    particularly    the     Indian     thinkers    and 
dreamers,   those   men  who  in  the  old  days  so  essayed 
to    solve    the    deep    riddle,   sought    to    withdraw    and 
emancipate   themselves,   retiring  from   the   world,    from 
the   body,   from    the   very  life    even,   that    they    might 
gaze    purely    upon     being.       The    old    sages    pierced 
through   form   and   spectacle,   saw  the   sea  of  illusion, 
Maya   and    all    things   floating   thereon,   a   very   mirage 
in    the    desert.        They  sought   to    penetrate    to    sub- 
stance,  to    reach    the  within  of  all  the  within,   to  rest 
in  formless   and    unchanging.       They   sought  to  trans- 
cend, to   read  all   in   the   permanent  relation,  nothing 
iin    the    transient,    to   dwell    in    the    everlasting    now. 
There   is   no   second   example  like   it ;    never   has   the 
ihuman   mind    so    divested    itself   and    soared    in    the 
'ether,   in   the   heavenly   spaces,  and   out   of  space  and 
beyond  time,  as   in  India.      This   also  was  needed  as 
a   protest,  a   check    and    counterpoise    to    the   intense 
sensuousness,  the   devotion   to    outer   objects   and   en- 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  187 

joyments,  of  the  multitudes  of  mankind.  It  was 
needed  to  proclaim  the  presence  and  power  of  the 
ethereal,  the  heavenly,  amid  all  the  noise,  glare  and 
bewitchment  of  the  earthly.  The  Greek  thought  was 
brother,  born  of  the  same  womb,  later  in  its  appear- 
ance, more  realistic,  cognizant  of  form  and  the  time 
•determinations,  but  in  the  great  brains  like  Pythag- 
oras, Parmenides,  Plato,  hardly  less  sublime  in  its 
aerial  flights. 

Born  in  that  royal  line  was  Gautama.  He  came 
with  this  heritage,  his  nerves  thrilled  to  the  infinite. 
True  it  was  of  him,  as  the  biographer  says  of 
Giordano  Bruno,  "penetrated  with  consciousness  of 
eternity."  His  soul  soared  into  the  everlasting,  his 
;heart  beat  to  beauty  and  to  love,  his  thought  flowed 
into  poetry,  into  anthems  of  song.  He  was  so  in- 
toxicated with  changeless  and  eternal,  he  forgot  time 
.and  all  of  life  here  save  the  ethical  law.  Say  if 
you  will  he  was  a  short-coming,  it  was  a  lack-lustre 
landscape,  a  dreary  blank,  it  was  celebration  of  re- 
nunciation ;  criticise  the  limitations,  the  marked 
defects — we  will  confess  it  all ;  but  he  was  a  glori- 
ous accomplishment.  His  affirmation  was  love, 
self-surrender  and  self-sacrifice  utter  and  absolute;  he 
emphasized  it  so  he  lost  all  thought  of  person  or 
-of  any  determinate  condition. 

If  he   failed    to    realize    and    complete    the  work, 


1 88  BUDDHA. 

he  stands  by  no  means  alone  in  that.  Other  pro- 
phets have  fought  to  win  the  prize,  have  struggled 
to  achieve,  to  rend  the  vail  of  the  mystery,  to  elu- 
cidate and  solve  to  complete  and  final  demonstration. 
If  he  failed,  we  may  remember  the  nature  of  the 
task,  and  consider  that  mortal  can  by  no  possibility 
here  prevail.  The  inscription  upon  the  Isiac  image 
at  Sais  holds  true  evermore:  "I  am  all  that  has 
been,  is,  and  shall  be,  and  no  mortal  hitherto  hath 
•  lifted  my  vail." 

Placed  side  by  side  with  other  great  masters,  he 
compares  not  unfavorably;  none  wrestled  more 
strongly  with  the  problems  of  being,  none  did  and 
sacrificed  greater  for  man,  none  aspired  more  yearn- 
ingly to  the  goal  of  the  infinite  peace.  Permanently 
the  history  must  be  regarded  as  another  of  the  con- 
tributions towards  solution  of  that,  which  in  its  own 
nature  is  supremely  transcendent.  That  this  prince 
of  Kapilavastu,  this  monk  of  the  Sakyas,  so  wrought 
and  endeavored  bravely  both  in  action  and  ^suffering, 
'must  also  permanently  entitle  him  to  the  thoughtful 
consideration  and  warm  thanks  of  mankind.  His 
resolute  courage,  his  inflexible  self-denial,  and  self- 
surrender,  trampling  upon  every  appetite  and  inclina- 
tion, holding  all  things  so  sacred  for  the  soul,  shall 
pique,  arouse,  incite  and  draw  all  hearts  near  this  high 
person  in  worship  and  in  love.  He  became  Siddhartha 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  189 

— " whose  objects  have  been  accomplished" — became 
IBuddha — 'whose  eyes  are  wide  opened/  —  and  mul- 
titudes of  souls  warmed  by  this  presence,  shall  strive 
to  calm  the  desires  and  attain  the  anointed  vision. 
Beneath  the  tree  at  Bodhimanda  he  saw ;  long 
journey  any  of  us  might  well  afford  to  make,  to 
find  that  tree  beneath  which  we  should  become 
full  awake.  In  the  spiritual  experience,  we  find  our- 
selves to  this  man  near  of  kin.  Continents,  cen- 
turies of  time,  difference  of  blood  and  race  cannot 
separate  us. 

But  form  and  individual  depart,  all  that  is  per- 
sonal and  historic  passes  away.  This  mortal  is  put- 
ting on  immortality,  is  being  sublimated  perpetually 
.into  reality  which  is  greater  and  more  than  it. 
"The  name  of  Buddha  is  nothing  but  a  word. 
The  name  of  Bodhisattva  is  nothing  but  a  word."* 
Signal  benefactors  of  the  race,  we  know  not  in 
what  numbers,  already  sleep  in  oblivion,  no  one  can 
.give  us  a  vestige  of  their  place  or  memory.  Yet 
their  work  abides,  the  legacy  goes  on  never  to  be 
consumed. 

"  One  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
The  heedless  world  hath  never  lost." 

*Burnouf,  Introd.,  p.  481;  quoted  from  the  Prajna  Paramitd, 
Absolute  Wisdom. 


190  BUDDHA. 

Buddha  may  be,  perhaps  is  already  that,  a  mythr 
his  history  a  tale  of  the  imagination,  but  the  career 
he  wrought,  the  hint  he  dropped-  into  the  ear  of  the 
world,  knows  not  death  or  decay.  It  has  vitality 
with  the  life  of  God.  All  that  is  individual  in 
the  faith,  the  dispensation  itself,  shall  wane  and  dis- 
appear, setting  like  stars  from  the  sky,  and  super- 
seded by  a  new  day,  but  the  idea,  the  Nirvana,  an. 
eternal  thought  and  aspiration,  more  than  Buddha 
or  his  religion,  shall  ever  illumine  and  quicken. 
Men  shall  work  upon  it,  be  filled  by  it,  seek  its 
infinite  possession,  long  after  all  the  names  we  know 
to-day,  shall  have  faded  from  the  memory  of  the 
world.  Long  as  the  race  endures,  as  time  exists, 
as  the  procession  of  the  ages  goes  forward,  so  long 
shall  the  soul  strive  and  aspire,  pant  to  escape  the 
bounds  of  limitation,  climbing  the  giddy  heights  to 
reach  the  goal,  to  see  and  to  be  the  changeless  and 
the  everlasting. 

The  growth  in  individual,  in  race,  is  slow,  by 
very  gradual  and  mostly  imperceptible  steps.  The 
enlargement  and  exaltation  come  much  through  the 
experiences,  one  after  another  in  life.  These  are  the 
spirit  flame  and  the  water  bath  that  set  and  bring 
into  pronounced  clearness  the  picture  on  the  plate, 
the  reminders  that  awaken  remembrances  of  the  for- 


THE  FINE  PROBLEM.  191 

gotten  home.  The  attainment  is  something  organic. 
We  see  as  we  grow,  mature  age,  make  trial.  We  rise 
as  we  do,  and  through  doing,  for  here  eminently  faith 
operates  with  works,  and  by  works  is  faith  .made 
perfect.  We  catch  glimpses  which  ripen  more  and 
more  towards  steady  and  clear  vision.  How  intermit 
tingly  the  sun  shines  upon  us,  an  instant  of  radiance, 
then  periods  of  cloud  and  obscuration.  But  every 
slightest  conquest  tells,  every  step  brings  on,  the 
sombre  days  also  count,  and  the  growth  goes  for- 
ward, much  of  it  silent  and  unconscious,  apparent 
only  in  the  ulterior  results. 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  destiny  of  humanity 
is  onward.  The  advance  of  each  individual  enters 
as  an  organic  element,  advancing  and  exalting  the 
race.  Better  approximations  shall  be  made,  finer 
views,  finer  realizations,  nearer  and  nearer  approaches 
to  the  infinite  goal.  And  in  ages  better  than  ours, 
generations  shall  be  happier  born,  nobler  bred,  with 
more  transparent  flesh,  purer  blood  and  clearer  brain, 
to  whom  our  words  shall  seem  childish,  coarse,  our 
conceptions  dim  and  crude,  who  shall  see  where  we 
but  grope,  shall  walk  and  leap  where  we  but  hobble 
and  totter  and  fall.  The  great  atonement,  reconcil- 
iation prepared  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
shall  be  wrought  out,  and  life  become  absolute  reali- 


192  BUDDHA. 

zation.  In  all  the  experience,  not  a  sigh  of  sorrow, 
not  a  breath  of  unrest,  never  the  rising  pf  desire, 
no  night  there,  perfect  peace  and  perfect  day. 

But  it  shall  be  the  same  road  ever,  same  method 
of  approach,  all  things  seen  in  relation,  lower  trans- 
cended and  cast  aside  for  higher,  higher  still  found 
intact  and  entire  amid  all  lowliest  and  poorest  —  at- 
tainment, surrender — pursuit,  repose  —  time,  eternity 
—  till  the  goal  which  is  beyond  all  goals  is  reached, 
conflict  lost,  aye,  consummated  in  conquest,  and  the 
grave  itself  swallowed  up  in  victory.  The  same 
reality  and  revelation  ever — seen,  unseen,  blending, 
dividing,  blending — ascending,  flowing,  soaring  onward 
without  end. 


INDEX. 


Abaris,  44. 

Ajatasatru,  a  king  of  Magadha,  46. 

Akbar,  64  Note. 

Absorptions,  the  material,  166,  171  seq. 

Active  and  passive  unite,  meet,  mingle, 

177. 
Admissson  of  females  to  monastic  orders, 

42. 
Age  of  Buddha  when  married,  17. 

"       Buddha  at  time  of  his  flight,  24. 
"      Buddha  at  time  of  his  death,  48. 
"      the  oldest  of  the  Vedas,  170  Note. 
Alexander,  64,  65. 
Alexandria,  49,  50. 
Alger,  Rev,  W.  R.  119,  120. 
Ananda,  cousin  of  Buddha,  42*  48,  49, 

50,  51,  100. 
Anatha  Pindika,  41. 
Apsaras,  31. 
Arata  Kalama,  25,27. 
Art  of  arts,  177,  seq.,  184. 
Asoka,  a  king  of  India,  52,  60,  61,  62, 

63,  79  Note,  96, 

Asoka,  extracts  from  his  edicts,  68,  69. 
Anuradhapura,  62. 
Annula,  61. 

Ayushmat  (Master),  37. 
Atheism  charged  against  Buddhism,  132. 
Abhidharma,  by-law,  66  Note,  122*- 

Bangkok,  71, 

Basita,  140. 

Bastian,  76,  77,  141. 

Bhagavat,  95,  107,  146. 

Brahma,  15,  80  Note,  81  Note,  91,  136. 

Brahmana,  118,  119,  139. 

Brahmans,  16,  25,  32,  38,  40,  44,  45,  56, 

57,  64  Note,  69,  80,  83,  93. 
Brahmanyang,  136. 
Branch  of  the  Bo-tree  sent  to  Ceylon,  61 

seq. 
Beal,  Samuel,  50  Note,  53  Note,  54  Note, 

65.  77>  84  Note,  104, 105, 121, 123  seq., 

141. 
Beal,  his  characterization  of  Buddhism, 

10. 
Beal,  his  opinion  in  regard  to  Buddha's 

descent,  13  Note. 
Behar,  26. 

Benares,  25,  36,  37,  38,  40. 
Berghaus,  9  Note. 


Bigandet,  Bishop  P.,  9  Note,  12  Note, 
23  Note,  24,  34  Note,  47  Note,  50 
Note,  53  Note,  72. 

Bhikshu  (mendicant),  20,  67,  112,  117, 
118,  139. 

Bhilsa  Topes,  25  Note. 

Bimbisara,  a  king  of  Magadha,  26,  36, 

4°.  53- 

Birmah,  9,  72, 141. 
Birmese,  effect  of  Buddhism  upon  the, 

70  seq. 

Bo-tree  (at  Bodhimanda),  34,  61,119,189. 
Bddhi,  29,  33,  62. 
Bodhisattva,  31,  189. 
Bodhimanda,  34,  61,  no.  189. 
Bowring,  Sir  John,  75  Note. 
Buddha,  his  birth  and  early  childhood, 

ii  seq. 
"        his  inclination  to  retirement,  15 

seq. 
"        his  gifts  and  feats  in  early  life, 

i,-15'17'- 

his  marriage,  17. 

"        his  experiences,  19,  20. 

'•  his  farewell  to  family  and 
court,  23. 

"  his  flight  and  residence  in  the 
wilderness,  23  seq. 

"  his-  reception  by  Brahmans,  25 
seq. 

"        his  conflicts,  27  seq. 

"  his  illumination  and  perfect  en- 
franchisement, 32  seq. 

"  his  momentary  hesitation  in  re- 
gard to  his  work,  35. 

"  his  resolution  to  devote  him- 
self to  humanity,  36  seq. 

"  his  preachings,  journeyings, 
etc.,  37  seq. 

"        his  sending  forth  of  the  apos- 
tles, 39. 
his  death,  48  seq. 

"  his  instructions  to  his  disciples, 
39,  50,  51. 

"  his  blessing  upon  the  Brahman 
and  his  wife,  the  weaver's 
daughter,  etc.,  45,  46. 

"        obsequies  of,  51,  52. 

"  accounts  of  his  personnel,  2  5, 
52,  53. 

"       preaching  first  employed  by,  55. 


194 


INDEX. 


Buddha  proclaimed  the  equality  of  all, 
56,  57- 

"        his  spiritual  ancestry,  80. 

"         his  Sublime  Verities,  84. 

"         his  ethical  code,  86  seq. 

"         his  births,  90. 

"         emphasized   the   domestic  du- 
ties, 90  seq. 

"         relied   solely  upon   the   moral 

element,  93. 
his  method  affirmative,  94. 

"         uses  parables,  106  seq. 

"         his  system  of  morality,  130. 

"         in  the  current  theological  sense 
an  a  theist,  132. 

"        made  no  impersonation  of  God, 

133.  149- 
dwelt  on  the  supreme  verities, 

I33- 
"         meaning    of    Nirvana     in    his 

mind,  137,  seq. 

"        seems  nihilistic  because  so  pure- 
ly spiritualistic,  138. 
"         sighted  the  goal,  148. 
"         ptrhaps    did    not    sufficiently 
draw   the   affirmations,    148 
seq. 

"        toiled  and  wrestled    upon   the 
mystery    of    existence,    149 
seq. 
Buddhagosha's  Parables,  86  Note,  101, 

no  Note, 
Buddhism,  its  early  propagation,  58  seq! 

expelled  from  India,  64. 
"  its  influence  upon  the  West- 

ern world,  64  seq, 
"  its  speculations,  66. 

"  its  pacific,  gentle  character, 

67  seq. 

"  its  amelioration  of  the  condi- 

tion of  woman,  72. 
"  introduced  into  Cashmire.sS. 

"     into   Ceylon,  58,  60 

seq. 

China,  58  seq. 
Japan, 59, 
Corea,  59. 
Thibet,  58,63. 
Farther  India, 

5.8. 

its  fortunes  in  India,  63  seq. 
penetrated  into  Persia,  59. 
propagated  among  the  Tar- 
tar tribes,  59. 
effects  of  upon  the  Siamese, 

effects  of  upon  the  Thibetans, 
70,  72. 

its  defects  come  of  its  great- 
ness, 151. 


Buddhism   made   iis  grave   mistake   in 
withdrawal  and  renuncia- 
tion, 161. 
Buddhistic  monasteries,  9,  59. 

"          authors  have  written  against 

caste,  72. 

"  Canon,  79  Note,  109,  122. 

"          Free  Churches^in  Siam,  75. 
"          nihilism,  137  seq. 
"  disparagement  of  the  world 

of  time,  151. 
Buddhists,  number  of  on   the  globe,  9 

Note. 

Bunsen,  Baron,  49  Note,  170  Note. 
Burnouf,   Eugene,  53  Note,  55,  88,  91, 

96,  loo  Note,  179  Note. 
Bruno,  Giordano,  147,  161.  187 

Cabul,  58,  59. 

Canon,  Buddhistic,  79  Note,  icg,  120, 

121,    122,     152. 

Cashmire,  12,  58. 

Chadwick,  Rev.  John  W.,  102,  103. 

Chakravarttins  (Wheel  Kings),  i3~Note, 

52- 

Channiug,  Rev.  W.  H.,  77  Note. 
Ceylon,  9,  58,  60,  62,  67,  69,  71,  72,  73, 

92,  101,  115,  127. 
Ceylon  Friend,  109. 
China,  9,  58,  59,  67,  122,  123,  146. 
Christianity,  75,  76. 
Confucius,  14,  149  Note. 
Corea,  59. 
Cousin,  Victor,  137. 
Csoma  de  Kerb's,  85. 
Cunningham, Major  A. ,25  Note,  64  Note. 

Dandapani,  father  Buddha's  wife,  16, 17. 

Dante,  65. 

Date  of  Buddha's  birth,  12. 

"     "          "        death,  12,  49. 

"     "     the  first  Council,  79  Note,  84. 

"     "      "    third  Council,  58. 
Dhammapadam,  109  seq.,  119,  121,  122, 

139  seq. 

Debt  we  owe  the  Indian  thinkers,  186. 
Deliverance  by  devotion,  conquest,  158 

seq.,  162,  177. 
Departure  of  Buddha  on  the  night  after 

the  birth  of  his  child,  23  Note. 
Destiny  of  humanity  onward,  191. 
Devadatta,  a  cousin  of  Buddha,  46. 
Devanampiyatissa,  a  king  of  Ceylon,  60. 
Dharma,  121. 
Discrimination  and  selection  in  our  work 

fitting,  159  seq. 

Discipline,  a  design  in  our  present  con- 
dition, 176  seq. 

Disparagement  of  all  things  of  time  in 
Buddhism,  151. 


INDEX. 


Distinguish,  while  we  cannot  separate, 

164. 

Doctrine  of  fate  has  its  uses,  183  seq. 
Do  or  die,  157. 

Dushtagamini,  a  king  of  Ceylon,  69. 
Dhyana,  141  seq. 

Edkins,  Mr.,  122  Note. 
Ethical  code  of  Buddha,  86. 
Expulsion  of  Buddhism  from  India,  64. 

Fahian,  58. 

Fate  and  destiny  in  the  present  condi- 
tion of  society,  173. 

Fausboll,  Dr.,  Note  109,  no. 

Fergusson,  James,  13  Note,  24  Note,  31 
Note. 

Fichte,  66  Note. 

Fo  worship  in  Chinese,  77. 

FoeKoueKi,  88  Note. 

Gandharva,  114. 

Ganges,  41,  48. 

Gatha,  104. 

Gautama  (Buddha),  n,   17,  21,  23,  24, 

25,  27,  31,  32,  37,  119, 187. 
Greek  thought  brother  to   the  Hindu, 

m8/- 

Gogerly,  D.  J.,  109,  no. 
Gopa,  the  wife  of  Buddha,  16, 17,  21,  24, 
42  seq. 

Habitude,  the  power  of,  167. 

Hardy,  Spence,  Eastern  Monachism,  23 
Note,  53  Note,  63  Note,  93,  115,  120, 
121,  122,  128,  132,  136,  143  seq. 

Hardy,  Spence,  Legends  and  Theories, 
J7f  33>  34-  53  Note,  64  Note,  72  Note. 

Haart  Sutra,  in  Chinese,  84  Not«, 

Heraclitus,  14. 

Herder,  J.  G.,  162. 

Hermes  Trismegistus,  134. 

Himalas,  58, 

Himavat  (Himalaya),  3.4,  15. 

Hiouen  Thsang,  24,  34,  41,  43. 

Hue,  Abbe,  76. 

Humility  emphasized  by  Buddha,  88. 

Idealism,  in  the  Buddhistic  specula- 
tions, 66  Note. 

Indra,  15,  136,  169. 

India,  n,  13  Note,  43,  52,  55,  63,  65,  67, 
123. 

India,  fortunes  of  Buddhism  in,  63  seq. 

India  (Farther),  58,  67. 

Isaic  inscription,  188. 

Intoxications  in  life,  176. 

Illusions,  1 80  seq. 


Japan,  9,  59. 

Jesus,  in  comparison  with  Buddha,  130 

seq. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  Preface,  6,  69  Note. 
Josaphat,  65. 

Kalantaka,  41. 

Kalpa,  21  Note. 

Kandala,  38,  56,  57  Note,  97,  101. 

Kandragupta,  69. 

Kanishka,  58,  79  Note. 

Kanjur,  122. 

Kantaka,  24. 

Kapila,  city  of,  33, 

Kapilavastu,  12,  23,  42,  68.  188. 

Karma,    Law   of   retribution,   88  seq., 

^6- 
Kasyapa,  40,  52. 

Katyayana,  41. 

Kshatriyas,  16,  57. 

Kwan  Yin,  77. 

Kisagotami,  101  seq. 

Koeppen  (Die  Religion  des  Buddha),  9 
Note,  12  Note,  22  Note,  48  Note,  50 
Note,  53  Note,  56  Note,  57  Note,  58 
Note,  59  Note,  60  Note,  63  Note,  68 
Note,  72  Note,  73  Note,  75  Note,  88, 
109  Note,  122  Note. 

K6sala,  40,  41,  44,  46,  48,  146. 

Koti,  90. 

Kublai-Khan,  76. 

Kunala,  96  seq. 

Kusinagara,  48. 

Lalita  Vistara  (Life  of  Buddha),  54  Note. 

Lama,  63,  76. 

Lanka  (Ceylon),  60  Note. 

Lao  Tsze,  14,  149  Note,  179. 

Law,  Buddha's,  "a  law  of  grace  for  all," 

56. 

Lhassa,  63  Note,  76. 
Le  Sage  et  Le  Fou,  88  Note. 
Leonowens,  Mrs.,  73  seq.,  86  Note,  128 

seq. 

Life,  a  conflict,  157  seq. 
Lob  Nor,  59. 
Lotus  of  the  Good  Law,   106  seq.,  127 

Note. 
Lumbini,  15,  19,  81. 

Magadha,  26,  40,  41,  58. 
Mahamega,  62. 
Mahavansa,  60  Note. 
Mahinda,  son  of  Asoka,  60  seq. 
Malla  princes,  49.  « 

Manual  for  the  Shaman,  103  seq. 
Mara,  22  Note,  28,  29,  114,  116. 
Marco  Polo,  65. 
Matangi,  100. 
Mathura,  98,  99. 


196 


INDEX. 


Maudgaliputra,  60  Note. 

Maudgalyayana,  48. 

Maya  (illusion),  13. 

Mayadevi,  mother  of  Buddha,  13,  15, 
28,  29. 

Megasthenes.  69. 

Messias,  awaited  still,  179. 

Milinda,  dialogue  between — and  Naga- 
sena,  143  seq. 

Milinda  Prasna,  143  Note. 

Ming-ti,  emperor,  58. 

Miraculous  conception  in  case  of  Bud- 
dha, 13. 

Mission  of  science,  175. 

Missionary  spirit  of  the  early  Bud- 
dhists, 57  seq. 

Modern  Buddhist,  136  seq, 

Monasteries,  41,  42,  59. 

Mongolia,  9,  67,  73. 

Mongolian  prayer,  78. 

Mongolians,  effect  of  Buddhism  upon, 
69  seq. 

Morality,  Buddhistic  system  of,  130  seq. 

Morality,  natural,  better  observed  in 
Buddhistic  countries  than  elsewhere 
in  the  East,  71. 

Muller,  Max,  12,  21  Note,  57  Note,  68, 
80,  loi,  no,  170  Note. 

Nagas,  50,  62.    • 

Nagasena,  143  seq. 

Nalanda,  41. 

Name  of  Buddha  nothing  but  a  word, 
189. 

Nepal,  122, 

Neumann,  Prof.,  9  Note,  70. 

New  Testament,  153. 

Buddhist  precepts  not 
below — standard,  no, 

Nigban  (Nirvana),  as  defined  in  Bir- 
mah.  141. 

Nilajan,  27  Note. 

Nirvana,  27,  33,  34,  45,  50,  83,  84,  87, 
89,  96,  102, 107,  112, 113, 116,  117, 120, 
132,  137,  138,  139,  140,  141,  142,  143, 
144,  145,  146,  147,  150,  158,  181,  190. 

Nir'ana,  its  proper  purport  and  mean- 
ing in  mind  of  Buddha,  137  seq. 

Nirvana,  as  defined  by  the  Chinese, 
Birmese,  etc.,  140  seq. 

Nirvana,  the  abode  beyond  all  abodes, 
147  seq. 

Nirvana  is  possession,  158. 

Old  Testament,  passages  from,  153. 

Oriental  poetry,  Alger's,  119, 

Oude,  n. 

Our  embarassments  lie  considerably  in 

our  condition,  184. 
Outer,  related  ever  to  inner,  164. 


Palasa  flower,  50. 

Pali,  Buddhist  scriptures  written  in,  109 
Note,  122. 

Palibothra,  69. 

Papiyan,  28,  30,  31. 

Parmenides,  187. 

Parsva,  a  lyric  poet,  58- 

Patna,  26  Note,  48  Note. 

Plato,  187. 

Phalgu,  27  Note. 

Platonists,  New,  66  Note, 

Prajapati,  an  aunt  of  Buddha,  13,42,  44. 

Prajna  Paramita,  50  Note,  84  Note,  132 
Note,  189. 

Prasenajit,  a  king  of  Kosala,  41,  88. 

Prayer  of  to-day,  170  seq. 

Peking,  59,  122. 

Persia,  59. 

Preaching  unknown  in  India  before 
Buddha's  time,  55. 

Presence  of  Divinity,  155. 

Polyandry,  73. 

Polygamy,  72  seq. 

Prodigies  attending  the  birth  of  Bud- 
dha, 14, 

Prodigies  attending  the  illumination  of 
Buddha,  33. 

Propagation  of  Buddhism,  58  seq. 

Puma,  94  seq. 

Pushya,  23. 

Pythagoras,  14,  156,  180,  187. 

Question  of  questions,  163  seq.,  169. 

Rahan,  46,  51. 

Rahula,  son  of  Buddha,  23  Note,  42. 

Rajagriha,  26,  27,  32,  36,  40,  41,  48. 

Rathapala,  100,  116. 

Reconciliation  of  eternity  and  time,  178. 

Regent  of  Lhassa,  76. 

Relics  of  Buddha  distributed  over  India, 

52. 

Renunciation  of  Buddhism,  151  seq. 
Repose  and  possession,  168,  181  seq. 
Rishya  Rakshita,  96 
Rome,  65. 
Rhodias,  101. 
Rudraka,  27. 
Rules  for  the  priests,  92  seq. ,  103  seq. 

Sacraments,  orLife,  106. 

Sacred  records  of  the  Buddhists  pre- 
served essentially  unchanged,  54  Note. 

St.  Hilaire,  Barthelemy,  34,  53  Note,  56 
Note,  91,  92,  96. 

Sakwalas  (systems  of  worlds),  33. 

Sakya-Muni,  n,  24,  47,  65,  67,  131. 

Sakyas,  12,  16,  17,  22,  42,  61,  188. 

Sala  tree  (shorea  robusta),  49,  143, 

Samanyang.  136,  1^7 


INDEX. 


197 


Sanchi,  13  Note,  31  Note, 
Sanghamitta,  daughter  of  Asoka,  62. 
Sanscrit,  Buddhist  scriptures  written  in, 

109  Note,  122. 
Sanputra,  41. 
Sassanidae,  59. 
Sautrantikas,  66  Note. 
Savatthi,  102. 
Shaman,  103,  104,  126. 
Shamanism,  63. 
Sramana,  29,  69. 
Sravasti,  40,  95. 
State  of  society  in  India  when  Buddha 

appeared,  56  Note. 
Seleucus  Nicator,  69. 
Sending  forth  of  the  Apostles,  39. 
Siam,  72,  73,  74,  75,  86  Note. 
Siam,  common  maxims  of  the  priests  in, 

128  seq. 
Siamese,  effects  of  Buddhism  upon,  70 

seq 
Siamese  minister,  extract  (from  Modern 

Buddhist),  136  seq. 
Siddhartha,  188. 
Sivaism,  63. 
Scriptures,  Buddhistic,  quotations  from, 

no  seq.,  123  seq.,  139  seq. 
Scriptures,  Jewish,  quotations  from,  153. 
Spinoza,  147. 
School  reading-book  in  Ceylon,  extracts 

from,  128. 
Sronaparanta,  95. 
Suhhadra,  49. 

Sublime  Verities,  Buddha's,  84. 
Success  of  Buddha's  preaching,  55. 
Suddhodana,  father  of  Buddha,  12,  14, 

22,  26,  42,  44,  48,  90. 
Sudras,  16,  57. 

Sutras,  66  Note,  79,  85,  106,  122. 
Sutra  of  Forty- two  Sections,  123  seq. 
Sutras  in  Chinese,  quoted  upon  mean- 
ing of  Nirvana,  140. 

Tanjur,  58,  122. 

Tartar    tribes,    Buddhism    propagated 

among,  59. 
Tartary,  72,  76. 

Tathagata,  50  Note,  85,  107,    116. 
Tchandaka,  a  servant  of  Buddha,  22,  24. 
Tcharka,  42. 
Thales,  14. 


Tragedies  in  life,  174. 

Transmigration,  doctrine  of,  "89  seq. 

Temptations  in  the  wilderness,  29  seq. 

Theen  Tai,  133  Note. 

The  phenomenal  real,  154. 

Thibet,  9,  58,  63,  67,  72,  73,  76,  122. 

Thibetans,  effect  of  Buddhism  upon,  70, 

72. 

Tripitakas,  121. 
Topes,  9,  52. 
Thoreau,  H.  D.,  185. 
Throne  of  Diamond,  48. 
Turkistan,  123  Note. 
Tushita,  28. 

Ugalimala,  46. 

Upagupta,  98  seq. 

Upanishads,    80    Note,    81    Note,  "112 

Note. 
Uruvilva,  27,  40. 

Vaibhaschikas,  66  Note. 
Vaisali,  25,  26,  36,  48. 
Vaisyas,  16,  57. 
Varanasi  (Benares),  36. 
Vasavadatta,  98  seq. 
Vassika- plant,  117. 
Vedic  Hymns,  169  seq. 
Vehicle,  Great,  66  Note,  132  Note. 
Little,  66  Note.  123  Note. 
Viharas  (monasteries),  9. 
Vinaya,  morality,  122. 
Virudhaka,  47. 
Visvamitra,  a  teacher  of  Buddha,  15. 


Wasana,  a  Rishi,  127. 
Wasseljew,  W.,  Buddhismus, 


Note, 


asseljew,  VV.,  rJuddnismus,   53  Aote, 

55  Note,  58  Note,  59  Note,  66  Note, 

121  Note,  123  Note. 
Wheel  of  the  Law,  38. 
Wisudhi  Margga  Sanne,  93  Note. 
Wong-Puh,  54  Note. 
Wuttke,  Geschichte  des  Heidenthums, 

81. 

Xenophanes,  14. 
Yasodhara,  42. 
Zoroaster,  156. 


ERRATA. 

On  p.  49,  second  line  from  bottom,  read  "  so  as  almost  to  cover  it." 
"      56,  first  line,  put  pause  (comma)  after  "  quickening." 
"      70,  second  line  from  bottom,  erase  "  the  "  before  "  every  revenge." 
"    122,  the  order  of  the  foot  notes  should  be  reversed,  and  the  reference 
mark  against  the  second  foot  note  (that  now  stands  first)  should  correspond  to  the 
second  reference  mark  in  the  text.     A  similar  error  in  respect  to  reference  marks 
occurs  on  next  page  (123). 


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